Assignment X789557
by Osced
Summary: Agent Claire Woods graduates with high recommendation from Walker High. She can pick her own job, but chose Security. Her first assignment is Mary Carmichael and everything works finds until one fateful day..
1. Assignment X789557

**Author Note:** I've done some changes in this chapter, but no really big changes. Please review and say what you thinks about this story and what I can change to get it better.

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Chuck, just playing with the world of Chuck.**  
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**Assignment X789557**

_**August 5th, 2028 12:AM Walker High, Auditorium** _

"Agent 459"

A young brown haired women stood up and walked towards to the stage to accept her diploma and the hall was filled with cheers from all of her classmates. The first one graduated from Walker High: A spy academy/High School.

"Congratulations"

She shook hand with her mentor and soon to be superior, she was giddy with emancipation for her first mission as an agent. Even if her first mission will be for the security department, which is the lowest rated department of Carmichael Industry. Most of her classmates were looking to be a part of the one of the top squads, but she was fine with doing security. Agent "Claire Woods" will be her cover name, she has been using this throughout her time here at Walker High. Most of her classmates have been getting their cover name from, a database, but she chose her own with the help of her Aunt and grandmother before she applied for the school. The next one to accept their diploma was 'Amanda Stevenson', her real name was 'Ann-Charlotte Schewosky' and was Claire's best friend and one of the few who knew Claire's real name.

Later the same day Claire gets her first mission, a long term mission surveiling and protecting a client. Her hands are shaking when she opens up the red folder that's tagged as high security:

**Assignment X789557:**

**Name: **Mary Lisa ****** (_Carmichael)_

**DOB: **_May 14, 2014_

**Type:** _Undercover, standard surveillance, assessment of potential danger_

**Classification:** _X8 (Highly classified, no one outside of the mission team can now) _

**Supervisor: **_Mary Bartowski_** (Head of Security)**

Agent will work along with Agent Amanda Stevenson, who is head of security detail for Miss Carmichael. Your mission will be working undercover to screen everyone Miss Carmichael comes in contact with and surveil them to asses if they are a danger for the subject. Agent will also do standard surveillance when it's necessary. Because of the undercover part of this assignment, **Agent will under no circumstance make contact with protectee!** During standard surveillance.

**Timeframe: ** 4+ yrs

Claire was happy that she got a high security mission, but a bit surprised that she got this mission.

**_May 24th, 2032 05:29 PM Carmichael Industry_**

Claire lurked in the shadow, her eyes scanned the entrance for her subject, she knew that her subject will soon arrive. Surveillance is the worst part of her job, sometimes she hoped that she got the overt assignment instead of the covert assignment. Even if she willingly chose to be a covert agent. Not because it would make her a superior over her best friend, more because then she would have a life. Luckily her surveillance will be short today, her _superior _Amanda will be working at the prom. Which gives Claire a free evening, that she will spend with her family. But until the subject and her protectee arrived to the prom, she was the only one that will do the protection. Even if she strongly don't believe anything will happen, the car drive from CI to their High School is only 15 minutes and she haven't found any potential dangerous people during the four years she has working with this assignment. She's kind of sad that she haven't found any dangerous behavior.

A red beetle was driving through the main gate and caught her eyes.

" Finally! "

She whispered when she recognized the plates and jumped in her non-descriptive car.

"_Subject has arrive, following him, no suspect behavior, 05:30 PM_"

She hit send and her reports ended up in the CI database automatically and started the car.

**_May 24th, 2032 05:30 PM Parking lot B2_**

A man steps out of his car a red beetle, he has never been here before, outside it looked like giant block, but inside it looked more like an hidden city, it seemed to have everything you need. This place was huge, he was pretty certain that he saw a hospital when he drove around to find the parking lot. He got the feeling that someone is following after him, but when he was looking back he can't see anyone. It's probably all the rumors about this place that makes him think that someone were following him. Checking the map he got at the entrance, it doesn't take too long for him to find the easiest route.

After about ten minutes of walking he finally arrived at _Walkers Avenue_, he finds the road blocked by a gate with two small guard house on each side of the gate.

"Sir, state your name and business'

Max looks at the man in suit that suddenly appeared in front of him. He didn't see him coming, the man came probably from some of the guard houses.

"My names Max, Max Anderson, and are here to escort Mary Carmichael to the prom"

Max stuttered and looked down and blushed. He knew all about the high security, Mary told him about that at school but it still surprised him. Mary's family was rich and owned a big security company and the only thing he knew about them was that they was all about security. For some reason Mary didn't want to talk about her family.

"Mr Anderson, I've heard much about you, stand still while the scanner will check your identity "

The guard smiled and entered a code on his wrist computer. Max saw a green light on him, he assumed it was the scanner and tried to look casually at the guard which he now saw had a name tag: David. David were build like a soldier and looked scary, but Max also saw a kindness in his eyes and wondered if that was some of Mary's 'uncles' she talked about when she got a bit drunk.

The whole relationship of the Carmichael family was a bit weird, he knew that Mary has siblings but all the twenty uncles and aunts doesn't make sense. He has seen one of their annual family picture and they doesn't really look like a family. He knew that a rumor in the school was that they all are Russian spies collecting knowledges about the US, but he never believed those rumors.

When the scanning was finished, David opened the gate with his wrist computer, Max got surprised when everything looked so normal, he thought it would look like a fortress inside. On the left side of the street was a high school, on the other side of the road were several houses. All houses looked the same with a big garden and white picket fences, he counted to five house. It really looked like a idyllic village from the 50s.

The last house was Mary's , it was slightly bigger and had a red door but that was the only difference from the other houses. The thought of multi billionaire Charles Carmichael living here was preposterous, but he knew they lived here. He opened the garden door easily, no lock was found on the garden door. Everything felt off, he hasn't found any sign of tightened security since he got through the gate. Everything looked normal, even the doorknob, not retina scan or finger scan or any other high tech gadget. Even if he didn't saw it a scanner had accepted his ID and let him through the house.

Not far from the security gate was Agent Claire standing, faking a smoke pause. She knew that she never could enter Walkers Avenue without someone noticing it and during this surveillance she can't be noticed especially in this place, her own home.

**_May 24th, 2032 05:30 PM Carmichael house_**

Sarah was still angry at her youngest daughter, she can't believe that Mary lied to them about her boyfriend. They haven't taught them to act that way, their family's motto was that you never lie to your family. Sarah didn't know anything about this guy until yesterday, when Mary announced that her boyfriend are picking her up for their prom. The worst part was that even the guards knew about him and Mary got them to promise that they kept it a secret. She hated secrets and it really hurt her that Mary thought she needed to lie to her mother. Thank good for perfect Ellie, she would never lie. She even understood that this old boyfriend wasn't worth her, when Sarah heard what he was planning to do to Ellie she got really angry.

It was different with Mary, even if Sarah understood Mary's yearn for some normalcy, she sometimes wondered if they did the right thing to let her go to the nearest public school. She wasn't home often anymore and when she was home, she spend all her time in her bedroom. Sarah couldn't get help from Chuck, he never got angry at Mary. Sarah tried to talk about Mary, but he said that we needed to let her to go her own way. But she was happy about the security detail on Mary, that made Sarah feel safe during the days when Mary was in high school.

Sarah heard a beep from her cellphone, the boy has arrived.

_Thank good that Chuck isn't here, he would never let me interrogate him._

Sarah slowly walks towards the hall and sent a text message to her mother in law. She had read all the rapport on Max since she gained knowledges about him, all those report was signed by X789557, Sarah knew that's a code to protect the agents, but she had gained respect for those agents. The reports was flawless, but something felt similar with one of these agents wrote and she wondered who it could be.

Mary nervously paced back and forth, her date was coming soon and she was terrified. She chose a public high school to get a more normal life, but she has never invited some of her friends home. Most of them would be too scared to accept it, even if she asked and probably some of them wouldn't be allowed to enter Carmichael Industry. But her biggest reason was that she was too scared too lose her friends, her family was pretty intense. Her mum's interrogation methods scared most of them. But it was different with her boyfriend, he asked her several times to meet her parents and learned more about the famous Carmichael's, he didn't looked like he was too scared to meet them. Even if she loved him, she doesn't feels to secure to tell him more about her family than what he can find in the newspapers. Eventually she decided to invite him home and the prom day felt like the perfect day for the meeting to occur. Him meeting the parents might not sound so scary, but the fact that she kept him a secret makes it more frightening. She hasn't spoked to her mother since their arguments about her lies, so she didn't knew if her mother still was angry.

Her mother was very protective and she wasn't so keen on another incident like the one between her mum and Ellie's first date. She still remembered that day , Ellie were so happy and couldn't wait to introduce him to her parents. After a conversation with Mary's mother, the poor guy ran out of their house and never talked to Ellie again. Ellie were devastated, but she hided it from her mother.

Now Ellie was 19 and secretly sees a guy, Mary are doing the same, she has worked really hard to keep Max, her boyfriend secret from her parents. He has tried and tried to get to meet her parents, but Mary always has denied his request. Both of them was planing on telling their father about their boyfriends who was less terrifying than their mother. For some reason the prom made Mary want her parents to meet Max, so she finally accepted his request and told him to pick her up for their prom. Ellie had cautioned her and told her that Mary should wait, but Mary didn't listen to her sister. Even if she regretted it after her big argument with her mother, she knew that she did the right thing. Her father had been happy for her and was saddened when he couldn't be here to see him, but the president was visiting them and as head of Carmichael industry he needed to be there for the president.

The doorbell rang and she knew that he finally was here, she unlocked her door and run down the stair to try to intercept him before her mother.

Max heard footsteps and his heart-rate was accelerating; _he are finally here to meet her parents_ , he have been practicing a speech of what he want to say to them, but a the moment he doesn't remembered a thing. The door opened and revealed a stunningly beautiful woman, he sees some similarities between this woman and Mary, _this must be Sarah_. He heard lots of story about Mary's mother, everyone loves to talk about her. Before he didn't believe all the stories he had heard, but when standing face to face with her, he know that she could do anything. _"Maybe she really did seduce the president"_

Sarah says hello and gave Max a bright smile and gestured him to enter.

Just as the door was closing Mary arrived and gave her mother a fake smile, a duplicate of how Sarah Walker used to do them.

" Hello Max, I see you have met my mum, dad isn't hear today so you can't meet him"

Her fake smile changed to real one when their eyes met and she gave him a lingering kiss, they didn't stop until they heard someone was clearing their voice. Her little brother Stephen has arrived and suddenly Mary was blushing, she forgot that he still was home, todays practice started later because of the visit from the president. She don't want to punish him, only her mother, she gave him a weak smile and introduced him to her boyfriend. But Sarah doesn't seem to care about the kiss.

Stephen heard a lot about Max and she knew that he wanted to talk to Max for a while, to learn about who he is, Mary was getting anxious, she wanted to get away a soon as possible, hopefully until Max got interrogated by her mother. She knew that Stephen soon needed to go to practice, hopefully it will happen soon.

Max doesn't seem to want to go at the moment, he gave her his jacket and followed her mother and brother to the living room. Mary hanged up Max's jacket and followed them, it felt like she was awaiting her death penalty.

Max are in awe, the living room has everything a teenager want; a gigantic TV connected to a high tech home theater system. The walls were filled with movies, games and music, he walked toward the nearest shelf that has a small sign with a childish handwriting : _'Mary's stuff'_.

"I see you are admiring my collection"

Max knew who this voice belonged to and turned around and smiled at his girlfriend, he always get butterflies in his stomach when she smiled at him.

" I didn't know that you had that extensive collection"

" Dad loves movies, I think he buys every movie that comes out and he still tries to teach mum about the fun with movies"

Max chuckled he has heard about Mary's mothers idea about what's fun, he smiled at Sarah who didn't reciprocate it. Apparently that rumor was true, Max is getting excited she's learning something about Mary's family.

"Mary...I can enjoy a good movie, but after watching Star Wars a hundred times it gets a bit boring and frankly I'm really tired of those movies"

"But Mum..how can you say something like that, dads loves those movies'

"That's why you will never say this to him"

Sarah answered, but she looked directly at Max in a threatening way instead of looking at Mary. Max got the feeling that Sarah doesn't like him, he pondered what he did wrong, he looked at Mary who gave him an encouraging smile. He's about to ask Sarah about what kind of moves she liked when the doorbell rang again.

"Oh that must be your grandmother, she wanted to get a picture of you in your prom dress Mary'

"_Saved by the bell"_ Mary thought, she was pretty certain that Max was about to ask her mother something and that wouldn't end well.

"Don't worry Max, mum can be a bit threatening be she's really nice when you learn to know her"

Stephen told Max as he walked away from the couple to say hi to his grandmother before he went to practice.

If he was scared when he first lay eyes on Sarah, he's a lot more scared when two more intimated womens go side by side both eyed him curiously. One of the womens are younger and might be in the same age as Sarah, he wondered who she was. The other one he assume was Mary's grandmother, behind those similarly looking womens a smiling Sarah walked with a box in her hand.

Mary glanced at her grandmother, aunt and mother she felt like she felt through the floor. She won't survive this, to ex agents wanting know about Max intention with her can't end well.

_Hopefully Aunt Ellie can control them_, Mary thinks and takes Max sweaty hands and gave him a yet another encouraging smile.

Sarah closed the door and opened the box and took out an expensive camera (Chuck's latest anniversary gift), she wanted to take the pictures before they boy pissed his pants. And she was fairly certain that it will happen very soon. No one survived her interrogation, when she knew they hided something.

"Times for photos dears"

Max looked up and found three womens with cameras ready to take the prom photo. He laid his arm around Mary's shoulders and smiled at the cameras.

When the photo op is finished, it was late and they really needed to get going so that they won't miss their own prom. Mary took deep breaths and mouthed thank you to her Aunt who apparently had problem with getting the right picture.

Sarah should be angry, but seeing her daughter so happy made her heart melt and surprisingly the photo op took too long, so the planned 'talk' will be postponed. Even Mary her mother in law seemed to have lost her belligerence. Who can't deny little Mary to have her wonderful prom day, something Sarah never got to enjoy.

**_May 24th, 2032 06:37 PM Carmichael house_**

Everyone followed they young couple outside to the front porch to say goodbye. Sarah walked towards her daughter and gave her a bear hug and she felt very emotional. Her eyes was starting to well up when Mary whispered something.

"I love you, Mum.'

She nodded and tried to look threatening at Max, but it's impossible to do that when you are on the verge of tears.

"She needs to be home by midnight and no visit at some cheap motel" ,

Sarah spoke up, before she teared up completely and run inside and shut the door. She missed her oldest daughters prom and didn't know how emotional it would be, she wished Chuck was here to comfort her. Her family is everything for Sarah, she felt so proud of her youngest daughter. Even if she still was a bit angry at her.

Outside everyone were quiet, no one believed what just happened. Max didn't understand the sudden change in Sarah, Mary had never seen her mother that emotional before, if you don't count the time her father went missing during a standard operation he just needed to do to keep him 'flash' ready. The only one that seemed to understand what happened was Ellie who waved goodbye to the kids and went inside to try to comfort her sister in law. Inside was Sarah sitting down at the floors crying, Sarah looked up and smiled at Ellie.

"She is so beautiful, I wish I was here when Ellie had her prom"

"Sarah you should be proud of both of your daughters, both of them are heading for a exciting life"

Sarah nodded and embraced her sister in law.

Mary smiled at her grandmother: "Bye grams" and took Max sweaty hands and walked away from the porch smiling.

_She made it and still had a boyfriend, she need to call her sister to talk about this._

She and Max walked hand in hand to his car that was parked at one of the big parking lot inside Carmichael industry.

Mary looked at her granddaughter and felt saddened that she never sent her own kids out for their prom. She gladly accepted when Sarah had asked her for help with meeting the boyfriend, she liked him even if he seemed to be too scared for such a big guy. He could be a perfect man for her youngest granddaughter, when she now decided to not work with their family business.

**_May 24th, 2032 06:47 PM, Parking Lot B2  
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Mary smilingly got in Max's car, she was looking after security detail but couldn't see one.

"_Maybe I'm without security today"_

Mary thought excitingly and gave Max a kiss. Not far away Agent Claire was sitting in her car and followed them when they drove out from the parking lot.

**_May 24th, 2032 08:00 PM Lancaster High School_**

Amanda Stevenson was waiting at the entrance of the gymnasium where they were holding this years prom party, Mary was a bit late, but Amanda isn't worried about it she knew about the stuff kids are doing before their prom. She did some exciting stuff before her own prom.

One hour later and Mary hasn't still be seen and Amanda was getting worried, she tried to contact Claire but she doesn't get any answer. She needed to call it in, even if she was terrified to do so, not a good way to start her career with loosing her bosses youngest daughter on their first assignment.

**_May 25th, 2032 01:17 AM Carmichael house_**

A phone was ringing and did woke Sarah up from her nightmare, she didn't felt Chuck's presence so she have to go up to answer the phone.

"Sarah is speaking"

" Hi I'm Peter Avery, head of security, sorry to bother you Mrs Carmichael, but I need to inform you that four hours ago a code red was issued for a Miss Mary Carmichael, we delayed calling you because of a request from the agent in charge "

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING...HAVE MARY BEEN MISSING FOR FOUR HOURS AND YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING?" Sarah shouts in the phone and her eyes was welling.

Later that night Sarah was laying still in her bed with Chuck comforting her, when the doorbell was ringing. Outside of the door is devastated Ellie Woodcomb also in tears.

**TBC**


	2. Not Following You

**Authors Note: Here is the second chapter, I'm sorry it took a while to finish it but I had couple of troubles with some scenes that didn't make sense. Anyway, enough about that. I hope you enjoy the chapter. Thanks to _**P.J. Murphy**_ for helping me making this chapter work. Please leave reviews. Thanks  
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**Not Following You**

**_May 25th, 2032 01:22 AM Carmichael house: Bedroom_**

Chuck opened his bedroom door after returning from his meeting with the President. He was exhausted after speaking with him for hours about some new contracts. He saw Sarah sobbing on her side of the bed holding a phone is her hand, in her other hand she's holding the latest picture of their kids. He felt heartache seeing his wife like this. When he left this morning, Sarah was in a good mood, even if still was mad at Mary for lying about Max.

_Why is she sobbing? _"Sarah...?" he asked timidly.

She turned around and her sad eyes looked into Chuck's. He sat down beside his wife and gently wiped the tears from her face. He had never seen Sarah in this catatonic state before; she was usually the strong one. Like the last time Stephen fell off of his bike. Chuck was a mess, but Sarah had total control over the situation. To see his wife like this terrified him.

"Chuck...Mary is missing." She pressed the picture against her chest. "What if she is gone forever…thinking…I don't love her?"

Sarah looked pleadingly at Chuck, but he didn't know how to respond to her question. He took her in his arms and held on tightly.

"Baby, she knows that you love her," he gently whispered into her ear as Sarah continued to cry. Chuck took the phone and the photograph out of Sarah's trembling hands and held onto her. Eventually her tears faded and her breathing fell into a pattern of long breaths. Chuck gently lay her down on the bed, lingering for a moment to feel her cheek against his. He whispered he loved her and started to get up from the bed to pull the covers over her.

Suddenly, both of them were startled by the doorbell. Chuck was torn between staying with his wife or opening up the door, but he didn't want Stephen to be disturbed, as he was a very light sleeper. He didn't want Stephen waking up and seeing his mother in this state.

"I'll see what they want, Sarah," he said quietly. Sarah nodded, and Chuck went downstairs to answer the door.

Chuck was greeted by his sister with the same catatonic look as his wife. He let his sobbing sister in and gently steered her into the kitchen, where most of their family discussions had occurred over the years.

"El, what are you doing here?"

Ellie looked at Chuck, and it hurt him to see her sister in this kind of state. She tried to say something but nothing came out of her mouth.

"Chuck, who was it?"

Sarah appeared in the door frame, and her demeanor was completed different when she saw the state Ellie was in. Suddenly Sarah looked like she did during her time as an agent. A comforting hug seemed to do the trick as Ellie started to talk.

"They just called. Clara is missing, and they are hoping she will activate her emergency transponder so they can track her."

Both Sarah and Chuck had the same expression; they finally understood who Clara was guarding: their own daughter.

"Ellie, Mary is also missing. We assume that Clara is on Mary's security detail," Chuck replied.

Ellie looked at her brother and sister-in-law and suddenly felt guilty about sitting in their house and sobbing when their daughter was captured by some evil person. She was about to apologize for her behavior, but the door opened and John Casey entered. He looked ready to go to war, but a glimmer of hope could be seen in his eyes.

"Clara's transponder is on and Lester has gone missing again. He stole his mother's car and she is a mess...never understood that kid. I've done everything for him, but he doesn't seem to care about anyone besides himself…"

Casey bit off his lip and refocused himself. "Before I forget, have any of you seen my emergency ID?"

Suddenly emboldened by Casey's report, both Sarah and Chuck rose from their stools but get stopped by Casey. "You two haven't been on active duty for nearly twenty years. You will only slow us down."

Sarah pushed Casey away and ran from the kitchen, Chuck looked lost. He was desperate to help them find his daughter, but he also knew Sarah wasn't emotionally fit to do that. He was fearful she would do something stupid, and the look Casey gave him let him know he agreed. Chuck left the kitchen to find his wife.

_**May 24th, 2032 07:13 PM Santa Monica Freeway**_

A red Beetle drove alone on the freeway as the sun sat placidly just over the horizon. The only sound could be heard from the car's electric engine. In the car sat a boy and a girl. The girl was smiling and the boy looked straight at the road to keep control of the vehicle. The girl didn't notice the tense look on his face, nor did she catch his grip on the steering wheel tightening when she touched his knee.

Mary was happy for the first time in a long time. She was on her way to her prom with her boyfriend and her mother seemed to be content with Max taking her there. The fact none of her bodyguards were here to escort them made her even happier. It would have been impossible to enjoy any pre-prom activities without worrying about them seeing something she didn't want them reporting. She heard lots of stories about this day from her friends and she wanted to fully enjoy it. Max and she had been dating for 4 months, but they had been friends since freshman year. Her sister would have told her that it was better to wait if she knew what she planned to do, but Ellie didn't wait so why should Mary do that? And Mary is also fairly certain that she loves him, so why wait when this moment is the perfect one?

Everything depended on her mothers' reaction and she was pleasantly surprised by her reaction. If her mother accepted him, he was a good guy. No one could fool her mother for long and she trusted her mother's 'spy sense,' even if she still was a bit angry with her. On the other hand, both her sister and best friend weren't that happy about her relationship with Max. Ellie's standard answer to why she didn't like Max was that something felt 'off' with him. Les often used the fact Max's father was in the Navy as an explanation to why Mary shouldn't date him. She took that more as a joke than anything serious. Les was a joker and never took things too seriously.

Could they be envious of her, or was there really something wrong with Max? She knew both of them didn't want Max to break her heart. But she was tired of being coddled and overprotected. She thought she had to face it on her own and let the chips fall where they may. When she talked to Les yesterday about what she might do, he seemed to understand she had finally decided to go through with it. He even told her about a perfect place he went when he hid from his mother whenever she had one of her 'moods'. He told her he could prepare it so it would be romantic.

"Max, what do you say about taking another route to school?"

Max looked at her and smiled. "Is that really what you want?"

Mary smiled shyly and squeezed Max's free hand. "I know the perfect place."

Mary pointed out the exit and they left the freeway, turning onto a small and dark county road.

A mile back, Clara tailed the red Beetle, not risking the chance of being closer and subject to being spotted by her target. Since she couldn't be certain the Mary was wearing her passive tracking device, she turned her own on. The covert officer's best friend, every asset under covert surveillance had this piece of equipment on their person. Usually it was a piece of jewelry…necklaces and bracelets were popular…the signal from the tracker could only be decrypted by the covert officer assigned to them, who was also the only one who could turn it on or off. One of CI latest inventions, Clara was one of the first who got to use it. Having eyes on both the tracker and the road was difficult, but it was something she had to learn to do. Fortunately, she learned from the best instructor in the entire intelligence community…

_**December 9th, 2027 12:17 PM Walker High**_

_Clara was really excited; she was chosen for the D-test, a test on par with the toughest evasive and pursuit driving courses offered on The Farm. She passed her test from the DMV already and would soon get her own driver's license. This test was one of the test that determined what type of agent she could be. Not everyone would be eligible to serve on the Level 1 Elite squads or even the other Level 2 Advanced squads. Uncle Casey was the head of the best squad, which she had dubbed the A-Team. Uncle Casey laughed when she told him the nickname she gave his team, which must have been one of those jokes only he understood. She wasn't that interested to work on the Level 1 Elite groups; she was more into protecting people and was pretty sure she would apply to the Security Division when she graduated. Most of the graduates did serve some time there if they didn't do really good on their tests._

_Clara sat down and the simulation began; computer simulations were used on many tests. Her mission was to follow a car without being noticed. The car she tailed had a tracking device to give the location, but the trick was to use both the tracker and her own eyesight in tandem, since tracker wasn't always accurate. But tracking the car was only half the battle; the simulation lasted several hours, and many students failed the test because they ran out of patience and tried to make something happen, only to be spotted by the target car. She bid her time, coming close to being spotted more than once. But after three hours, she came out of the test with the highest score ever. All of her friends started screaming and hugging her, as it was a big moment for everyone in her group. It was not everyday someone set a record on one of the hardest tests Langley had to offer._

_**May 24th, 2032 07:45 PM Cabin 202**_

"Max…M-Max I can't, I can't…"

Mary huffed quietly out of frustration and quickly got off the bed covered in rose petals, already regretting how hard she wrenched Max's hand out from under her skirt. This was all her idea…the rose petals on the bed, the room bathed in candlelight…and she couldn't go through with it. She looked down in shame as she fixed her outfit. She led him on, she unbuttoned his shirt, she put his hands on her breasts, but the alarm bells went off in her head, and she realized what she thought she wanted was really the last thing she wanted.

Max slowly walked over to her side of the bed. He took her hand but made no attempt to continue what they were doing. "It's OK. Let me go to the bathroom, and then we'll drive to the prom."

He walked out of the room and Mary started cleaning the rose petals from the bed, thankful she didn't try to spread them out all over the room. She had them in her bag in under a minute and set about to extinguishing the candles. She heard footsteps and assumed Max was exiting the bathroom. She didn't anticipate hearing a quick 'whoosh'. By the time she could react to something hitting her on the back of the neck, she lost consciousness and fell onto the bed.

A man stepped out of the shadows clad in all black attire, smiling as he looked at Mary. _She's so beautiful, even when she's asleep_, he thought. He could only fantasize what it would be like to lie next to her every night. He picked Mary up in his arms, thankful he spent all of that time exercising at the gym. It made carrying her to the cellar in the cabin that much easier.

He gently put Mary down on the ground as he produced a key to open the padlock on the door to the cellar. He prepared it days ago for HIS Mary. He rehearsed this action several times so he wouldn't have to turn the lights on as he carried her downstairs and placed her on the chair he moved in there. He tied her up in the chair and made sure the special light he prepared for this was in the correct position. Everything was prepared; he even scrubbed and cleaned the cellar within an inch of its life so it would have a pleasant smell.

Mary stirred in the chair and opened her eyes, only to be blinded and succumb to dizziness. _Where is Max?_ She struggled against her restraints and tried to ascertain who was in the room. However, the room only got darker and anybody in it was a mere silhouette to her.

He dimmed the lights on purpose; he couldn't stand the thought of seeing her clearly when he knew what he had to do to her. It was easier that way; he could imagine it was a dream, a dream that began four months ago that culminated tonight.

There was a beep on his mobile phone. He knew who it was from, as they were the only ones who knew this number. He read the message contentedly; everything was going according to plan.

Fifteen minutes later and not far from the couple in the cabin, Clara found the same exit her charges took. Mary's tracker had been in the same location for the past fifteen minutes, and Clara tried to figure out what was going on. They couldn't have stopped for something to eat, since there wasn't a restaurant within miles. _Could they have gotten a flat tire?_ she thought, which didn't exactly make her feel better. Even Clara could sympathize with someone in that predicament. All she knew was Mary's tracker had been stationary for fifteen minutes and she wanted to know why.

Clara spotted another car in the distance blocking the road, or at least it appeared to be doing that. She stopped her car and took out her binoculars. The car appeared to be Max's, but the licenses plates were gone. The car was placed perfectly; it was impossible to get around it because the road dropped off on both sides. Checking the tracker again, Clara confirmed Mary was definitely not in the car. Now Clara was beginning to panic. Why would they leave the car on the middle of the road and then walk to whatever place they wanted to go?

She tried to call for backup, but she couldn't get any mobile phone coverage. She opened the glove box to take out her tranq gun. It was her weapon of choice, even though some of the agents she trained with saw that choice of weapon as a sign of weakness. But she knew better. Killing might be easier, but when you knew little about your current situation, it sometimes led to more dire circumstances.

Sneaking up on a car and opening it without making any noise wasn't easy under normal circumstances; approaching a car in designer boots situated on a road made of gravel was damn near impossible. Clara could feel her blood pulsing through her veins as she tried to assess the situation. Her entire focus was on the car. That was her mistake. She never saw the dark figure approach her from behind with a gun aimed at her. Clara heard the whooshing sound of the gun, but it wasn't enough time for her to react...and everything went black.

The dark figure loomed over her; its gloved hands searched for something on Clara's body. The figure found what it was looking for and disappeared, letting the body remain on the road. He then took out his mobile phone to send a message.

_It's done. Found only one agent. I'm on my way, will be at HQ after I get rid of the car. L._

The man walked towards Clara's car, catching a glimpse of the agent's face for the first time. It made him jump back in surprise; he wasn't expecting her, and she always intimidated the hell out of him. Even now, a small part of him expected her to get up and attack. He felt a bit silly, but it motivated him to get far away from here. He found the tracking device in the car and decided to take it with him. He drives only a few miles away and takes the gallon of gasoline he brought with him. He doused the car in the dangerous substance, broke open a flare, and tossed it into the car. As the car became engulfed in flames, he could only hope the smoke would reach far enough for someone to see it.

_**May 24th, 2032 05:55 PM Walker Street**_

He used to hide in the bushes to see her getting ready for school; he followed her everywhere he could. He sat on the stool she sat on, he drove the same route she did, and he couldn't takes his eyes off of her. She was the girl of his life, but she never noticed him the way he wanted. They had known each other for a while, and he had loved her for as long as he knew her.

He wanted her to adore him just like he adored her; he wanted to be the sun in her solar system. But that wasn't the case. He was happy the few times she caught his eye and smiled at him, but it wasn't enough for him. Not even the occasional stolen kiss. He wanted the whole package.

His entire day was about her. When he didn't see her, he worked out and studied and thought about her. In a way, it was a good cover, as his mother and his uncle praised his grades and how he stayed in shape. It was to impress Mary, but it wasn't the only reason he did it. The thought of succeeding in something his father never did was what he really wanted. His hatred of his father was almost as strong as his love for her.

But this was the day, the day everything would happen. After this day Mary would be his forever. He spent four months working on his plan, ever since that one day. He was proud of his achievement; from the little awkward boy in elementary school to this man that everyone loved. It was time for him to get his prize...

_**May 24th, 2032 08:00 PM Undisclosed Location**_

Mary was terrified. _Where is Max?_

She sat alone in the dark room and she couldn't remember anything after he left. She said she couldn't do it, and for the first time in four years she wanted to have her mother here to comfort her. She started to cry, thinking that she never would see her family again. Her knowledge of abduction was pretty extensive for a high schooler. With all of the terrifying stories she heard during her childhood, she knew exactly what would happen to her. Someone was after information about her father and they will beat her until they get the information they want. But she didn't know _anything_ about her father's business, they took the wrong girl.

She looked down at her father's birthday present to her when she turned fourteen a bracelet which she never took off. Something about this bracelet had always amazed Mary, it was water-resistant. In fact, she once spilled some wine on it and it still looked the same. Her father told her it was one of his newest inventions and something he was really proud of. She never thought her father was so into jewelry, but this one was the most beautiful pieces of jewelry she ever laid eyes on. Her sister, Ellie, also received a similar bracelet but in another color, while her little brother, Stephen, just got something similar at Christmas. Stephen's was not a bracelet; it was a silver chain with the CI emblem on it, but she knew it was made of the same material and it really suited him.

Her tears subsided; she had faith in her family that they will find her. She just needed to believe that and stall her captor for as long as possible to give them the time they need.

Mary's captor looks at her through a two-way mirror he had set up for this moment. He couldn't get over how beautiful she was, even if her face was blotched from the crying. He didn't like to see her cry, but it was necessary for the plan to work.

It was time for the next phase. He picked up the voice distorter and turned on the speakers hidden in the room.

"**Maryyyy, you will do exactly what I say or you will die.**"

Mary looked around to find the source of the voice but was not successful, nor could she recognize the voice. Yet something in the back of her mind found a familiarity to it.

-May 24th, 2032 09:00 PM Undisclosed Location

She was once again tied up; her captor having undone her ropes to do his bidding. Mary felt violated and scared. She was wrong about what her captor wanted. He wasn't interested in her father's company; he was interested in HER. The high pitched laugh still haunted her when he reacted to her demand to tell here where Max was. She was scared for herself, but she was even more scared about what this bastard was doing to him. This monster seemed to know what he was doing and took perverse pleasure in making her frightened.

She remembered the stories she heard when her mothers' friends were visiting, to try do make her stronger. She needed to take control over the situation and the key to doing that was to use herself. Even though the thought made her ill, she knew she needed to do something in order to find Max.

"**MARY...it's time for you to eat...do NOT force me to feed you.**"

A dark clad man appeared in the room, Mary couldn't recognize him, the man's face being obscured by a mask and sunglasses. Mary contemplated her captor might be someone she knew. The man untied her hands, and she had a sudden urge to bounce up and attack. That was quashed by the gun pointed at her face.

"**Don't try anything stupid. You will be dead before you get anywhere.**"

The man put a plate of food next to her and backed away while still pointing the gun at her. Seeing him with more light allowed Mary to notice a few things about him. He was built like Max, but the man was in disguise and could be anyone. At least she knew it was a man, as not many girls were built that way.

_**May 24th, 2032 10:00 PM Undisclosed location**_

After another session of Simon Says, with her captor playing a very sadistic Simon, she felt so tired. All her muscles were strained and she felt like her eyes would pop out of her head. Mary had never felt so weak.

_How could they have been captured for months and survive?_

She had a newfound respect for her mother and her friends who swapped war stories similar to the one she was experiencing now. These three hours felt like a lifetime and she was angry at herself for not being able to be stronger.

_I'm a Bartowski for crying out loud!_

This shouldn't have been this hard. She tried to think about her family and all the good times she had with them. It helped her relax and she felt her strength coming back. With her eyes closed, she could see the beach where she spent a lot of her childhood. She focused on one particular day six years ago when her best friend, Les, was with them.

_Mary and Ellie played in the water and little Stephen sat in a puddle of water at the shore with some of his cousins. Mary was happy they were finally here. It took longer this year because her baby brother got carsick. Not far from her was her best friend swimming underwater to try to catch her. She pretended not to notice him sneaking up behind her, as it was part of her devious plan. In the exact right moment Mary dove under the water and attacked him. Both of them resurfaced, Mary laughing in victory over the vanquished Les. But Ellie decided that wasn't how it should end, grabbing Mary and throwing her into the water, helping Les in order to tip the scales in their favor. All three were laughing as the attacks on each other continued, although tickling someone until they couldn't breathe didn't exactly fall under the standard definition of an attack._

_On a blanket not far away from little Stephen sat Sarah, Chuck, and their extended family, which now included Les' mother, who sat next to Casey. Her once-beautiful face was pale, having been marred by so much sorrow. Casey had tried to help her since her husband walked away from her and was like a surrogate father for Les. Sarah and Ellie kept their eyes on the kids like usual. Ellie's maternal instinct made her worry about Clara when she didn't see her in the water. Of course, sixteen hardly qualified as being a little child anymore, but that didn't mean a mother couldn't worry about her. She turned and saw Clara talking to her favourite uncle, computers undoubtedly being the subject. To the outside observer, one would have guessed Clara to be Chuck and Sarah's daughter. Although Clara bore a resemblance to her mother, albeit with her father's eyes, her choice of career mirrored that of her aunt and uncle rather than her physician parents. She remembered when she was younger all of the stories of the exciting stuff her grandmother had done. Then, when her uncle founded CI and later built his own city, she finally got a chance to try out the life of an agent. When it was time to choose high school, she chose Walker High, a newly-founded high school where here aunt was the principal. Both her parents weren't fond of her choosing that route, but after some discussion they finally agreed to let her. She loved her time there. _

_Clara smiled at her cousins in the water; both of them always enjoyed their time here. Suddenly, her smile was frozen when she caught a flash of something not so sinister in Les' eye._

A small smile graced Mary's lips from remembering that day at the beach, but it also got her to thinking about her cousin. When she was younger she was a bit afraid of her, but the year before high school they started to talk more and they got friendlier. But she hadn't seen Clara since her graduation party. That always made Mary sad, even though she knew Clara was doing something important for her uncle's company.

He looked at her again; he couldn't help himself. Even with the cracked lip…which he regretted giving her but she was asking for it…she was still the prettiest girl he have laid his eyes on. Her eyes were still welled up from all of the crying she had done. He felt a tinge of guilt, but he was really starting to enjoy this. He'd give her an order and then she did exactly what he said. He was like a puppet master, although he hadn't asked her to do exactly what he really wanted yet. It was best to wait and do it at the end.

But it wasn't how he wanted this to go in his mind. The worst part was that he didn't mean to fall for her. Now all of this stuff he had to do felt a lot worse than he imagined it to be.

_**May 25th, 2032 01:27 AM On the county road**_

_Where am I?_

Clara struggled to move, her head pounding like a jackhammer and her body felt sore all over. She opened her eyes and looked up at the star-filled sky. Suddenly she remembered the car and tried to stand up on her wobbling legs. It took her a few steps before her legs worked properly, during which time she took a look around. The road was quiet and she didn't see either Max's car or her own.

_Oh, no. They're really after Mary._

She looked through her pockets but couldn't find either her mobile phone or her tracker. They must have taken it with her car. She only had one choice now: activate the emergency beacon. She activated it, hoping someone on her team was at headquarters and keeping an ear open. CI had an extensive security system. Everyone was issued an emergency beacon, but only a few people could access the GPS system within them. That was Clara's advantage. They may have taken her beacon, but they wouldn't know what activating it would really do. The emergency beacon Mary had wouldn't be detectable, and only Clara could activate it. She could only hope the cavalry was on its way.

_**May 25th, 2032 01:30 AM Undisclosed Location**_

Something was blinking on the tracker he took from the agent. He hadn't succeeded yet in cracking the password but he could access some of the base commands. He took a quick sweep of the area and then looked at the tracker again. It finally dawned on him that an emergency transponder had been activated. The location of the signal wasn't from the cabin; he assumed it was from the agent who surely was now awake.

He was starting to regret their plan. Killing the agent might have been a better option, but they had decided it wasn't necessary.

_**May 25th, 2032 02:00 AM Undisclosed location**_

Mary heard the door break open and her eyes focused on the intruder. She expected her captor to return. Whom she saw instead was both a shock and a relief.

"Les, is it really you?"

"What are you doing here?" Les asked her in surprise

"Where am I?"

Les untied her, and Mary wiped away some of her tears.

"You know I usually spend some alone time in this cabin when Mom is crying?" Mary nodded in acknowledgment. "You know that day is today?"

_I never left the cabin?_ she thought.

It felt odd whoever kidnapped her would not try to hide her, since everybody knew where this cabin was. She also remembered it was on this day several years ago when Les' father walked out on his mother and him. She had been a mess ever since.

Les ties up the knots and continues with his explanation. "But when I arrived here after my nightly ride, someone attacked me. I was able to fend them off, but the attacker ran away before I could see who it was. I was going to give chase…"

"STAY AWAY FROM HER!"

A very large person flew threw the door and slammed Les into the wall. Les was pinned to the wall as the man strangled him with one hand. He tried to talk but couldn't get any air.

"John, stop! You're choking him. He SAVED me!"

John Casey turned to his goddaughter and grunted in acknowledgment, releasing his stranglehold of Les.

"Lester, do NOT run away from your mother like that! She's a mess because you stole her car and didn't tell her where you were going!"

Lester kneaded his sore throat as he tried to breathe normally again. "Casey... she isn't a mess because of ME. It's the time of the year. You of all people should know what happened to her on this day. I just couldn't handle having to pick up the pieces again over it."

"MARY!"

A shout came from outside of the cabin. Mary looked towards the doorway and spotted her favorite cousin standing there. Clara's face was reddened from tears as she ran towards Mary and gave her a bear hug she clearly inherited from her mother, Ellie.

"Oh, thank God you're safe."

Mary looked suspiciously at Clara, not understanding why Clara was here and an emotional mess. Mary assumed Clara was on an undercover mission and working her up the CI hierarchy. But it was certainly a welcome surprise to see her.

Clara released her grip and was suddenly bordering on panic. _I just blew my cover. How else do I explain being here?_ Clara quickly thought about her options. "Mary, let me talk to your uncle for a minute."

Clara pulled Casey outside and asked to borrow his mobile phone, remembering her own mobile phone had been taken. She quickly placed a call.

"Carmichael residence, Ellie Woodcomb speaking."

Clara paused in surprise at her mother picking up the phone at Uncle Chuck's house. "Mom…" Clara began with a whisper, again feeling overwhelmed by what had transpired tonight.

"Clara...are you safe? Did Casey find Mary?" Ellie asked in a rush

Clara remained silent for a moment, attempting to get her bearings. "Yes, Mom. She's safe and we also found Lester. Casey is questioning him at the moment. Mom, I'm sorry, but can you fetch Chuck? I need to talk to him about my mission."

"Of course, dear," Ellie replied. "But you sound stressed out. You need to relax; I'm sure you did your job like you're supposed to."

There was a brief silence before another voice cut in. "Agent Woodcomb, is my daughter safe?"

Clara was taken back by the cold, hardened voice she heard, as she was used to a more pleasant tone from her Uncle Chuck. She guessed it was the voice no agent wanted to hear from him.

"Yes sir, everything is under control. We found Lester Patel, Jr. here. Agent Casey is interrogating him right now."

Clara got silence in return, which she interpreted as her cue to continue. "I told her that you asked me for help to protect my cover." She still got silence in return. "Sir, are you still there?"

"Thank you," Chuck replied in relief. "Thank you, Clara. Come home as soon as you can. I think you deserve a few days down in Cancun. On the company dollar, of course. You earned it."

Inside the cabin, Casey continued to listen to Mary and Lester's versions of what happened. Mary blushed when she had to confess they went here to celebrate their prom. Casey growled at that thought until Mary told him she changed her mind. She was telling Max when everything went black.

Casey made a few notations into his tablet computer. Based on what Mary and Lester told him, it pointed to Max as the perpetrator. A hypothesis Clara shared, as Max would have been found long before now had he been innocent of this. But Mary couldn't accept that. She thought it was impossible Max could have done this, even though both Casey and Clara searched the entire cabin for him.

But none of them knew about the hidden room below the cabin floor. Under their feet sat Max, listening on the chatter above. He looked at his mobile phone to verify it was off. He removed the batteries to make it harder for them to track him.

**_May, 25th, 2032 05:45 PM Carmichael Household_**

Mary sat on the edge of her bed, still unable to sleep since returning home almost fourteen hours ago. Seeing her mother so broken, so panic-stricken, was the worst thing she had ever seen. It was almost like seeing Mrs. Patel, the women everyone in CI felt bad for. A promising agent who decided to go become a civilian and fall in love, only to get her heart broken. The woman hadn't worked since that fateful day ten years ago.

Mary tried to tell her mother that she was OK, but her mother only started to cry again. She kept saying everything was her fault and that she was a bad mother. After a couple of hours and help from her father, they finally succeeded to get Sarah to bed, although Mary was unable to sleep herself. She tried several times to call to Max, still unable to believe he could have done this. Up to now, she only got his voicemail.

Suddenly her phone rang, and she saw Max's name and picture on the caller ID. "Max, why haven't you returned my calls? I've been so worried! Did you get away from the kidnapper?"

What she got in return shook her to her core. The same distorted voice.

"**HAHAHAHA... I'VE BEEN WITH YOU THE WHOLE TIME, MARY. YOU SHOULD HAVE GIVEN ME WHAT I WANTED. BUT NOW YOU SHALL DIE. DO NOT TRY TO FIND ME. SOMEDAY I WILL BE BACK."**

The man hung up and Mary broke down in tears. How did she not realize it was Max? Why did she ignore the obvious signs? Why didn't she listen to Casey and Clara?

The bedroom door opened and her father stood there.

"Was it Max?"

Mary nodded and began to shake. Chuck went to her and held her in a tight embrace as she broke down crying. Downstairs, Sarah, Ellie, and Clara talked about what happened. Ellie and Sarah poured over all of the data they had, wondering how they could have missed it. None of them could understand how the sweet, shy Max could be so cruel.

_**May, 25th, 2032 05:50 PM Undisclosed location**_

He put the phone down and smiled at his accomplice. The phone conversation went exactly as planned, although he felt a little bad for Mary. The other man took the phone and broke it in half, throwing it into the fire for good measure. He looked at his accomplice and remembered when he first met the man at his gym four years ago. It was hard to think that the chubby little boy he met then was the same person sitting in front of him now. He acted like a typical geek, but the boy was determined to build himself up. After a couple of weeks helping him with weights, they became really good friends and both of them had a similar past in that both of their fathers had run away. He didn't realize that both of them knew Mary.

"I need to go now, or they might start to suspect me. Here is the new ID I promised. Impossible to trace. And here is the account number with 15 million already transferred into it"

The other man gave him one of his crazy smiles, opened the door and disappeared. He watched him leave and wondered if that was the last time he would ever see his friend.

**TBC**


	3. The Hunt Begins

****Authors Note: Here is the third installment, this chapter is rather short, but chose to divide this part of the story in parts. I've done some smaller changes in chapter one, mainly changed the name of Clara's friend. But also some other minor changes. Anyway, enough about that. I hope you enjoy the chapter. Thanks to _**P.J. Murphy**_ for helping me making this chapter work. Please leave reviews. Thanks.**  
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**The Hunt Begins**

_**May 27th, 2032 07:22 AM - Langley, Virginia - Intersect Project Command (IPC)**_

Ellie arrived at CIA Headquarters in a rush. She was running late because her boyfriend had to take his sweet old time in the shower. Normally, she wouldn't have her boyfriend over on a Sunday night, but it was their anniversary and wanted some quality alone time with him. The romantic dinner and concert they went to certainly fit the bill. Alone time also meant not talking to her family or friends. In fact, the last person she talked to on Thursday was her sister, Mary, who hoped her weekend would be a success.

Ellie was the head of the Intersect Project Command, which she had to admit sounded a lot more impressive than it really was. Certainly a 19-year-old wouldn't hold a job that high up in the CIA, even if they had the IQ of a supercomputer. But she was placed in charge of the IPC by her father, who still didn't completely trust the CIA and didn't want them to have full control of the Intersect. However, he could certainly trust his daughter. Ellie got the position from her father, who asked her on the day of her graduation from Walker High to head up the project. Despite her initial misgivings, particularly in thinking how someone fresh out of high school could handle such an important job, her father knew she was smart enough and tough enough to make it work. And he was right; Ellie even learned to appreciate the people who worked for her and what her mission at the CIA would be. She even helped her father draft the agreement with the government. The IPC had to be led by a member of the Bartowski family or someone of their designation. Most importantly, the Intersect could be used ONLY for educating agents and analyzing intelligence as it came in. No combat skills and definitely no downloading it into any agent. Four separate attorneys, including one recommended by Uncle Casey, made sure the agreement was airtight.

She checked her mobile phone, which beeped a reminder of her meeting with the engineers about the new updates they were planning for the Intersect computer. She started to put it away when it rang.

"Ellie speaking," she answered with her traditional clipped tone.

She got nothing but silence on the other line. She was about to hang up when she heard what sounded like someone talking in the background.

"I can hear you. I haven't got all day."

Suddenly, the phone hung up. She looked at it and frowned. _Maybe I need to change my number_, she thought.

She made it to the door of the conference room for her meeting when her phone rang again. "Who the hell is this?" she answered angrily.

"Ellie…it's me, Clara." Her cousin's timid voice got her attention. "I'm sorry for the call before. Mary wanted to call you."

"Oh. Hi, Clara. But if it was Mary, why didn't she just say that?"

"Ellie, it's a long story, but you need to come back. Mary isn't feeling very well and neither is your mother. They both need you here."

"Why?"

"It's…better if you hear it from them instead of hearing it from me."

"Oh..." Ellie felt like she couldn't breathe. _Oh my God. What happened? Is Dad OK? Is Stephen OK? They have to…_

Ellie disconnected the phone call and shouted to the engineers waiting for her that the meetings were cancelled for today and tomorrow. She ran for the elevators, but all of them were busy on the lower levels. She bounded for the stairwell and took the steps two at a time to the parking lot in the basement. She stopped when she hit the concrete to catch her breath after running down ten flights of stairs without thinking, but all sorts of horrible scenarios were running through her mind and clouding her judgment. Once she caught her breath, she took out her mobile phone and started calling several departments to see if any could lend her a plane seat to fly west. If there was one thing she lived by, it was that nothing was more important than family.

_**May 27th, 2032 08:15 AM - Carmichael Industries**_

Clara sat in her rather small office inside of Carmichael Industries, although the office spent most of its time getting along without her. She needed a couple of days to reconnect with family and recharge, but now she was blankly staring at the video wall that covered one side of her office. Right now, it showed a spinning CI logo, but documentation was soon on its way to her computer. Some of the agents on her team dug into the databases to find anything and everything they could on Max. She felt a bit guilty about being in Cancun while her teammates sacrificed their weekends, but she was grateful she had something to read. Plus, she wasn't going to win any arguments from her aunt and uncle about taking days off after finding Mary for them.

After the phone conversation with Ellie, she told her team to send her everything they had collected so far. Although everybody wanted her to share the workload, Sarah vetoed that in a hurry.

"She is the best person for the job," Sarah told them in a distant but heated voice. "After working covert surveillance for four years, she knows a lot more about Max than he thinks she does."

Clara was a bit disturbed by how Sarah had been feeling since this began. Her voice showed anger not even her parents had heard in years, and her ghostlike, almost emaciated face was starting to betray her age. Clara was motivated by that more than anything else to find out why Max did this and if anybody helped him. Rolling her chair towards the screen, she brought up the documents her team found on Max Anderson. Although there were hundreds of documents in the system, each document was color-coded to make them easier to delineate between one team and another. The shades of green on the icons designated her team, and the darker the shade, the more recently the document was updated.

The first report on Max and his relationship to Mary went back to the first day at her new high school. Because of the unusual circumstances in which she attended the school, getting acclimated was difficult for Mary. Max was a friendly-enough student who didn't raise any red flags according to the child psychologist her parents' company consulted. Clara took notes on some of the names, still driven by guilt over what happened to Mary. No amount of praise or assessments to the contrary was able to change that, no matter how right they may have been.

The second report was written by her. Max had talked to Mary a few times when they were both sophomores in high school and offered her the occasional ride home instead of letting her take the bus. Although it was frowned upon by Carmichael Industries, Mary showed Max around the massive complex that was her parents' company. Security at the place looked the other way because she was the daughter of the bosses, although they did run the license plate on Max's car. However, that checked out as being registered to the man who owned the gym where Max hung out all the time after school. The owner was a friend of Max's mother, Andrea. That piece of the puzzle, unfortunately, was a lot more complex.

A knock on the door made Clara jump. She turned to see Amanda, her workmate and closest friend at Carmichael Industries. She gave Amanda an appreciative smile since she had done most of the heavy lifting in the investigation.

"Hey, Clara," Amanda said with a smile. "I tried to keep the place like you left it…a complete mess."

Clara laughed. "I saw that. Not a single paper organized, not a single dust bunny disturbed. You are a true friend."

Amanda gestured to the video wall, which was now full of documents. "Quite a page-turner."

"Yeah," Clara said with a sigh. Clara and Amanda had been friends since they were freshmen. They lived together in the same apartment while the dorm Amanda was supposed to stay at was being renovated. When it was finally ready, Amanda decided to stay with Clara in her den below CI headquarters, and Clara didn't object. Even though Amanda was the team lead and thus responsible for everything that was going on, Amanda felt the most for Clara regarding what happened to Mary. She was determined to find out how they let Max slip through their fingers.

"The rest of the team is not here?" Clara asked.

"They worked through the weekend, so I wanted them to get some sleep. They'll be in after lunch, but then they'll get right back to work."

"What do we know about this gym owner?"

Amanda shrugged. "A friend of Max's mother, Andrea. You remember her ex-husband, Captain Jack Anderson? Getting drummed out of the Navy for negligence had quite the negative effect on their marriage. Bastard left Max's mother and him high and dry in some run-down apartment in San Diego, and they were barely paying the bills. Then they get the boot when the guy goes on the run. She kept her nose clean once she moved to Lancaster, working at a clothing store six days a week and spending her free time with whatever man out there would treat her nice. The local gym owner distinguished himself by being nice to Max as well."

Clara nodded. "That's why he was hanging around the gym. He wasn't happy with his mother because of everything that happened, that's for certain. I figured everything was OK because Max started out as friends with Mary until four months ago when they started dating. But everything was still on the up-and-up."

Clara exhaled in frustration. "Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it."

"Hey, none of us saw this coming," Amanda said in a reassuring voice. "We'll keep on it. THAT I can guarantee you."

Clara looked at the video wall, and her focus turned towards the gym owner. "Let's put more resources on our friend from the gym."

"You think that's Max's accomplice?"

"It's as good of a place as any to start. Max had a better relationship with him than with his own mother. Get into his past and see what you can turn up. IF you can figure out how to work the computer," Clara said with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Amanda had her fill of teasing about not being the computer expert everyone else was. "Is it my fault my parents didn't believe in those things? I just got used to working a mouse, and now they have all this touchscreen, two-finger, three-finger crap."

"There's a trenta-sized coffee in it for you," Clara enticed. "Four shots of caramel, just the right amount of half-and-half?"

"Always hitting me in my weak spots," Amanda playfully growled.

Amanda went to her computer to do her research while Clara stretched and went downstairs to procure the necessary caffeine and sugar for a long day. She appreciated the chance to stretch.

_**May 27th, 2032 12:00 PM - Carmichael House**_

Ellie arrived outside her childhood home, still a bit sore after the bumpy five-hour flight. She felt something was off when she walked towards the front door. The whole town felt silent and almost ghostlike, and the only people she saw were agents stalking the streets. She counted at least ten agents on Walker Street, which meant something was really wrong.

The front door opened before she had a chance to knock, and her grandmother greeted her.

"Hello, Eleanor."

Ellie stepped up to her grandmother and gave her a hug. They had always been very close. She babysat Ellie a lot before Mary was born.

"Mimi...what have happened with Mom and Mary? And why is there so much security around here?"

"Oh, Eleanor. Something happened to Mary yesterday, but I think it's better if your mother and father explained what happened. Mary is in her bedroom trying to sleep; we have been keeping watch over her. But your mother is much better, so you don't need to worry about her."

Ellie watched her grandmother go away and went inside. It still felt like home, but the house was also as quiet as it was outside. In the kitchen, she found her father talking to her mother, who looked really awful. She had never seen her mother in this state. She really looked weak and her father looked like he hadn't slept in a while. She shuddered at how her mother looked before if her grandmother thought this was an improvement.

"..., Intersect, if it's them, you know what they want from us."

The conversation stopped when Sarah saw Ellie at the doorstep.

"Mom, Dad, I got a message from Clara, but she didn't tell me what happened and Mimi told me something happened to Mary."

Both Sarah and Chuck stood up and tried to smile at their oldest daughter. Sarah attacked Ellie with a hug and buried her nose in her daughter's hair, which took Ellie by surprise. It was usually her father who was big on hugs, although a hug from her mother was not unheard of. It took a while before Sarah released her daughter and both sat down on their regular spot at the kitchen table.

Chuck explained what happened. "Ellie, Mary was abducted yesterday by her boyfriend, Max. But thanks to one of our agents, she got home safe. We don't know much more at the moment and we haven't found Max, but we will find him soon. I promise."

Chuck sipped on his water and squeezed Sarah's hand, whose eyes was glazed over. "From what we have learned is that this whole abduction had been planned for a while and it looks like he had an accomplice. They're working with that at HQ at the moment. Hopefully we will know something more later today."

Ellie gasped when she heard about what happened to her little sister. How the hell did this happen, she screamed in her mind. She knew a few things about Max. He was a bit weird, but she would never believe that he could abduct Mary.

A rage was building inside her. W_hy would anyone want to hurt Mary? She's the kindest person in the whole wide world and she was the only one of her siblings that didn't want to be involved in the family business._

A part of her anger was directed towards her parents. _They should have called me_, she thought. Her choice of living in Washington, D.C. may have made it harder for her to be with her family but she was still part of the family. But then it dawned on her how much more this must have been hurting them, and the looks on their faces made Ellie think her parents have been through hell in the past days.

Sarah noticed the sudden change in Ellie's appearance. "Sweetie, are you all right?"

Ellie looked up at her mother's face, and her emotions threatened to spill over. Her mother took her in her embrace, and it reminded Ellie when her mother used to do that when she was younger, such as when she fell off of her bike and scraped her knee badly.

After a few moments, Ellie broke the embrace and slowly made her way up the stairs to check on her younger sister. Sarah and Chuck stayed at the table. Sarah's demeanor changed drastically after Ellie left. Chuck stood up and went to his wife to embrace her.

"Why can't you leave us alone?" she said quietly in her husband's embrace. "You almost succeeded the last time."

_**May 27th, 2032 14:00 PM - Carmichael Industries**_

Both Clara and Amanda spent the day looking through files. A good portion of those files merely eliminated other possibilities. Technically that was progress, but to the people who were obsessed with finding out the truth, eliminating wrong answers wasn't nearly as edifying as coming up with the right answers. All of Max's other friends were clean as far as the criminal background checks were concerned, as was his father, Jack. For the moment, the gym owner remained their only person of interest.

Clara took a look through the mountain of folders and documents that had accumulated on her desk. She also took a look at the video wall, where the list of names was posted. Most of the names had a red "x" next to them, meaning they were eliminated as suspects. Suddenly, the corner of a file on her desk caught her eye. He wasn't a suspect, but she hadn't thought much about him since all of this started.

_Lester, Jr. Why did he show up right before it happened and fight Max off?_

Clara frowned. Even though Lester, Jr. had some Agency training, the likelihood of him fighting off the much stronger Max so easily seemed a bit odd, although she knew Aunt Sarah had fought off people much larger than Max in her Agency days. The fact that both Lester, Jr. and Max had lost their fathers was something she though was interesting. And neither one had a good relationship with their mothers. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to make him a suspect. However, it was enough for Clara to keep digging.

She found the standard file on Lester Jr. He was 16, a sophomore at Walker High, and he was a model student, excelling particularly in Agency coursework. There was however, several redacted sections to his file, which was unusual although not unheard of. If he was able to fight off Max, perhaps he had been working out himself outside of normal physical fitness work at the school. Unfortunately, Clara didn't know where.

Clara started leafing through the folders, but all background information about the Patels was missing. It wasn't redacted like some of the data in Lester, Jr's file; it was simply gone.

_That's weird. I swear I a file refer to the standard background check on the Patels._ Clara did a search for 'standard background check' in all the files in Lester's records and only found files that referred to a background check. There was no actual file. That raised a red flag in her mind. It looked like the file was erased, which made her more suspicious of him.

Her phone rang, and Amanda picked it up. "Hello?" Clara watched her partner and friend as her eyes widened slightly. She immediately wrote something down on a piece of paper. "Get me a full list and email it right away. Thanks."

Amanda hung up the phone. "What's going on?" Clara asked her.

"Those were the kids at Lancaster," Amanda replied, referring to the local team in Lancaster that was helping with the investigation. "They have the name of the gym owner. Manny Man is the guy's name. That's Andrea's boyfriend."

"Manny Mann? Sounds like a cover name from a really bad spy movie."

"Could very well be. What's even weirder is they came up with nothing on him before his time in Lancaster." Amanda shook her head. "What do you think?"

"An ex-spook, maybe?" Clara theorized. She did a quick search on her computer. "Nothing as far as the government's concerned. Nobody has ever used the name Manny Mann."

She sat back in her chair with a sigh. "What list did you ask for?"

"I told the Lancaster kids to email me a complete list of anybody who works or holds a membership at the gym," Amanda replied. Behind her, one of the computers beeped. She turned to look at the screen. "Here's the file."

Amanda opened the file, and Clara looked over her shoulder as they read through the list of names.

"Bingo," Amanda said with a angry growl.

"What?"

Amanda pointed at the name. "Larry Paterson. One of the aliases Lester had assigned to him in school."

"There's our connection," Clara said with a tired sigh, as she had hoped she was simply running around in circles with her suspicions of Lester, Jr.

Amanda got on the phone to call the rest of the team in to help. As the head of X789557, Amanda knew she had to proceed carefully. When someone on the inside has been compromised, it was a race against the clock to control the damage.

"I'll have the team comb through all the reports of both Max and Lester and look for places and connections. We have to move on this fast."

Clara nodded in agreement. Although she felt like she wanted to take this on herself, she couldn't deny the scope of this case was too wide for one agent to handle, no matter how much that agent felt responsible for it. But Amanda had the best team working for her. Even though a full investigation of the people in and around Lancaster would take time, Clara knew they would figure out what was going on.

Clara called her uncle to give him an update about the operation. His reaction to the fact that Lester, Jr may be involved was a little peculiar, but she didn't have time to think about that.

**TBC**


	4. The Way We Are

******Authors Note: Here is the fourth installment, hope you like it. Thanks to _**P.J. Murphy**_ for helping me making this chapter work, after a bit of work this chapter got pretty decent. Please leave reviews. Thanks.******

**The Way We Are**

_**May, 27th, 2032 15:00 PM Carmichael House**_

Chuck hung up his phone after getting the bad news from Clara and went to tell the rest of the family. His heart just wasn't in it, of course, especially given having everyone over was having a bit of a therapeutic effect on Mary. He skulked into the living room to see everyone talking and laughing. He took it in for a moment, knowing it would be a long time before he heard it again.

"Clara called," Chuck said softly. "They have some evidence that might tie Lester to what happened. She'll call later when she knows more."

The room got quiet, and tears started streaming down Mary's cheeks again. Ellie sat beside her and kept her sister in her embrace. Sarah glared at her husband for a few seconds.

"I knew this would happen!" she shouted before storming off to another part of the house.

Chuck looked at everybody remaining in the room. "Your mother is just tired," he said quietly, which everybody accepted but didn't truly believe. "El, can I talk with you alone for a minute?"

Ellie and Chuck went off to the other end of the room. "Can you keep an eye on them while I talk to your mother?" Chuck asked her. Ellie nodded in consent. "Thanks, honey," Chuck said as he walked off to where he suspected Sarah went.

He stood in the doorway to the gym set up in the basement. It was Sarah's 'fortress of solitude', as it were, and Chuck smiled inwardly at the Superman reference he just attached to his wife, which wasn't all that inaccurate, given some of the things he had seen her do over the years. He watched her work out on the heavy bag, landing enough punches and kicks to have the thing begging for mercy. He always waited until she was done, having received a bloody nose from her one time when he was dumb enough to sneak up on her during a workout.

After an hour, Sarah turned and saw Chuck at the door. She looked down at the ground. "I know it wasn't your fault and I'm sorry…"

"I just wanted to see how my angel is doing," Chuck said soothingly. Sarah looked up again but still had the same hurt expression on her face. Chuck tried to give her one of his patented eyebrow dances. It didn't work at first, but Chuck's hopeful look slowly broke through Sarah's exterior, and a tiny smile graced her lips. Chuck held his arms out, and Sarah stepped into them. The two stood there taking comfort in the embrace.

Finding out Lester Jr. was involved was not a shock but was still quite troubling, since that explained why someone would go after his daughter. He regretted keeping what he knew about _Pegasus_ to himself. A committee within the CIA was charged with disbanding the Intersect project. However, by using some of the same hardware and tactics his father did when he was Orion, Chuck discovered there was a subgroup of that committee who gave thought to resurrecting the project, something he never wanted to see happen. It was difficult to find out even this information, as all evidence of the group was erased. He wasn't even sure if they were working in the interests of the government or their own.

"Chuck, is _Pegasus_ involved in this?" Sarah asked her husband. She knew of the group and its purpose but little else. Chuck looked at the ground in guilt. He expected Sarah to lay into him again, but she continued to hold him. She wasn't happy Chuck kept a secret from her, but she understood he did it to protect his family. Certainly she could understand the concept of keeping secrets to keep people protected, given what she used to do for a living.

"We'll stop them," Chuck said as he was able to look at his wife again. "I don't know how, but we'll stop them."

Sarah looked at her husband's pensive look and released him from her embrace. She could never be angry at him for a longer time, even if she still was angry for keeping a secret from her again. But she believed he had good reason. The Intersect caused them so much trouble for them, but they were still together, and it was logical that _Pegasus_ might be involved with some rogue Intersect program. She had to admit overreacting a bit to finding out Lester was involved…at least to the person whom she took it out on…but she still couldn't shake the fury of realizing Sandra Simpson…or Smith as she was known before…would go so far as to involve her daughter in Pegasus trying to get their hands on the 3.0 version of the Intersect. She wasn't even above using Lester, Jr. to get a copy of it. Sarah chided herself for dismissing Lester's obsession with Mary as merely a boyhood crush. But now she suspected there were blueprints and access codes at his father's cabin, which might explain why he was up there so much.

She went back to the punching bag, trying her best to work out her anger and frustration.

_**May 27th, 2032 09:15 AM Carmichael Industries – Lancaster Office**_

Lester Jr. arrived early for his shift because he needed to check with Max first, and the bus schedule for the area dictated he'd get there before 10AM, when his shift normally started. He was a bit worried that he couldn't leave the cabin, but Max didn't have any problem with that. He hadn't seen any suspect behavior when took his car to Lancaster. Lester, Jr. was relieved Max mastered the art of being a spy for once.

Lester, Jr's long dark hair and mischievous smile worked wonders with the ladies in his school, but he had only one person to whom he was attractive. That didn't mean some didn't try, such as Dina Thomas. She flirted with him all the time and was certainly easy on the eyes by any definition. But Lester, Jr. never did anything about it, even when the two worked the same shifts in the office. Mary's long, curly blonde hair and piercing blue eyes had captured his attention since the first day he saw them nine years ago. He even carried around a bar of Raspberry Dream chocolate at all times, which was Mary's favorite. He never even took a bit; he simply took in its fragrance and fantasized about Mary.

"Les, is it okay if I leave early? I need to get some sleep before class."

Shocked Lester Jr looked up at Dina and gave her a dazed smile. Suddenly snapping back to reality, he put the chocolate bar away and gave Dina his usual shy smile. Dina certainly noticed the difference between the two smiles and it didn't take someone of her intelligence to notice to feel some resentment.

"Sure, Di. No problem. I'll see you in class," Lester, Jr. answered as non-committal as he could.

Despite her realization that Lester, Jr. didn't have the same feelings for her as she did for him, she gave him her best smile as she left, one that would make most boys want to go to war just to win her over. Now alone, he turned on his music player and programmed it to play The Best of Jeffster!, Volume 2. It was an heirloom from his father, and hearing his voice always helped him concentrate on his tasks. and putted his chocolate bar back in his pocket.

It was time to finalize the last part of the plan to turn Mary, but before he could do that he needed to be sure Max was safe. He checked the log to see if the office got some inquires that might endanger Max. He had grown to like Max over the last four years, although certainly he tried not to form lasting friendships given whom he worked for. His mother always told him to use his feelings rather than suppress them, which actually came in handy when those same feelings got the better of her when his father mysteriously left. He developed at close bond with Uncle Casey while he was at the hospital following his mother's suicide attempt. She was never the same woman, but Lester, Jr. still needed family. The CIA became that surrogate family for him. He doubted he would have signed up had this not happened.

_BEEP_.

Lester, Jr. checked for new messages, and he found the one he didn't want to hear. The office got a request to investigate Manny and the gym that was a front for his CIA team. He couldn't delete the message, as he didn't have the authorization on his computer account to do it, and there wasn't enough time to hack into the system and erase it. Lester, Jr. went with the only other option he had: to open a search request and be informed if anyone began investigating around the stadium, where Max and he had a base of operations established.

His shift was almost over when the door opened and Bryce walked in. Lester, Jr. gave a smile as his mentor and a senior in charge of the office this week walked in.

"Why are you smirking, Bryce?"

"Oh, just been doing some investigating for HQ about that gym on Lancaster Boulevard. We didn't find much, but something tells me there's some kind of cover-up going on. Could you get HQ on the line for me? We've got a few things to send them."

"Uh, sure. No problem," Lester replied carefully, hoping and praying Bryce didn't pick up on his scared expression. _Why did I use my CI-issue cover name over there? What was I thinking?_

Lester put the call through for Bryce and exited the office, giving the excuse he probably wasn't allowed to hear Bryce's conversation. He took out his phone and made a quick call to Max.

_**May 27th, 2032 16:00 PM Clear Channel Stadium - Lancaster**_

Max looked around to see if someone was following him after he concluded his meeting with Lester, Jr. Something went wrong and his cover might have been blown based on the investigation that had begun into the gym where the two of them met. But both agreed there was little choice but to proceed to the next part of the plan: a string of letters addressed to Mary. Max found an office store to buy the stationery needed, but he used a fake beard and polarized glasses to fool the facial recognition systems in the cameras. He had to admit making a mistake, but he was surprised Lester, Jr. let him stay on the team. Mistakes generally weren't tolerated in a business like this.

_**May 27th, 2032 16:00 PM HQ, Room AB**_

Room AB was one of the biggest rooms at HQ and Amanda wasted no time making it their 'office' to continue with this investigation. She had everyone here, from the techs to the bodyguards, along with enough equipment to orchestrate a mission to the moon if they wanted. But Amanda wanted it this way to facilitate handing out assignments to everyone. As Clara sat down with her laptop and watched Amanda delegate authority like the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, it was clear why she was such a good leader.

Clara's mission was to investigate people that were close to Lester, Jr. and she would work with a new partner. Her new partner certainly wasn't young in age, but it wasn't unusual for a forty-year-old man with a quickly-receding hairline to be considered a newbie, given he came from one of their rival companies.

Clara and her new partner went down to the garage to get their vehicle: a new car that was basically two seats sitting on top of a huge battery. The electric car was not only designed to be environmentally friendly, but it also had a next-generation computer on it that could access the CI mainframe remotely. Clara got in the driver's seat, surprised Andy was letting her drive. He had certain old-school foibles she was warned about, but he appeared content to let her lead.

They headed for their destination, a familiar one to Clara.

_**May 27th, 2032 16:30 Walker High**_

Clara wasn't surprised when she discovered her old high school looked exactly the same, as she only graduated from here four years ago, but she did take some humor in seeing Andy stare in awe at what was in front of him at the top spy academy in the country. Clara smiled as Andy and she walked up to old Mrs. Waterbaum's reception desk. She looked exactly like Clara remembered, apart from the change in hair color from pink to purple.

"Hello, Mrs. Waterbaum. I'm Agent Clara Woods and this is Agent Andy Wright from the Security Division of Carmichael Industries. We're here to inquire of the whereabouts of a Mr. Lester Patel, Jr." She showed Mrs. Waterbaum her badge to prove she was telling the truth.

Mrs. Waterbaum did a quick computer search. "Lester Patel should be in his X-10 class right now. They should be conducting a shooting exercise in Room C-102A. Do you need directions?"

Clara smiled, having spent more than a few waking moments going through those exercises. "Nope. I know where that is."

As they walked down the hall, Clara noticed the trophy cases still showing she had the highest scores in the senior shooting competition. In fact, nobody had even come close. Maybe they'll let me borrow a gun and show these kids something, she thought with a smirk as they reached the elevator. She swiped the access card Mrs. Waterbaum gave her and took the elevator down to Level C.

Finding C-102A was easy enough: they just had to stop when they heard the gunshots.

C-102A was built as a shooting simulator not too unlike the old moving-target shooting ranges of the previous era, but its difficulty certainly tried the freshman and sophomore students who were required to go through it. She had done the exercise over 100 times herself, although those Bartowski genes helped her master it by her 20th try.

Clara signaled the instructor and waited for him to finish with the current student running the scenario before attempting to enter. With the live ammunition used in the exercise, caution was a good idea. She didn't recognize the instructor, but he put the class on hold and waved her in.

"What can I do for you, Agent Woods?" the instructor asked as he looked at her security badge.

"We need to ask you a few questions about one of your students, a Lester Patel, Jr. We understand he was not in class today?"

The instructor regarded her for a moment before giving a smirk. "Wow, you guys really take truancy seriously these days."

Clara shook her head. "I think it's safe to say this isn't about Lester missing a few classes." Her demeanor took on the classic Walker/Bartowski hard stare, which tended to keep just about anybody in line. Right now, it was even working on her partner, Andy. "We need a nearby room to talk to some of the kids, as this is much more serious than just someone skipping a few lectures during trainee week."

Without a word, the instructor led Clara and Andy to an office just down the hallway from C-102A.

"Start sending the kids in that class to me one-by-one," Clara ordered the instructor in a no-nonsense tone. The instructor didn't dare question her despite having at least ten years' experience on Clara.

"What's this?" Andy asked while they waited for the first student.

"This is an Intersect station," Clara replied as she looked at the computer terminal to which Andy referred. "Students can download whatever skills from the Intersect they need." She caught his look of confusion. "You have heard of the Intersect, right?" Andy nodded but didn't press the issue further.

A student entered the office. She was the type of person who was beautiful, knew it, and didn't let you forget it. Clara could already feel the attitude coming from her.

"I'm Dina Thomas," she said as if it was a major inconvenience. "The instructor said you needed to talk to me?"

Clara nodded. "Ms. Thomas, we are talking with every student in the class. Could you tell me the last time you saw Lester Patel, Jr.?"

"I had the night shift at the office. He came in around nine and we chatted for a bit. He does the same job as me, so I'm assuming he had the next shift afterwards. I don't know anything more, but he's a shifty character. Never even noticed me. He thinks he's sooo great because he's handsome."

_Oh...I wouldn't call that shifty... I would love to never talk to you again and you and I just met you..._

"Thank you, Ms. Thomas. If there isn't anything else, please send the next student in."

Clara made a few notes into her tablet computer. The next student had even less information for her, as did the next several. It wasn't until Johnny Grimes walked in that she made some headway. He was one of the few that was on good terms with Lester. Johnny noted he didn't talk much in school, but once they were off school grounds, Lester opened up quite a bit, even talking about baseball and some of his favorite books. Lester, Jr. even had season tickets for the baseball team.

Clara forwarded that information to HQ before Andy and she went to talk with Mrs. Patel. To say that it didn't go well was a gross understatement. She never answered the door, but Clara heard Jeffster! music playing in the house. They tried the door, and it was unlocked. They found Mrs. Patel lying face down on the carpet sniffing a very dirty pillow. Clara shook her head, almost feeling sorry for Mrs. Patel, given what she had gone through. She placed a call to the psychiatrist and to the hospital to come by and take care of her. Clara and Andy hung around until they arrived, but she couldn't hide her concern this situation was getting worse by the minute.

_**May 27th, 2032 17:45 Carmichael Industries, Lancaster Office**_

Their last stop was the Lancaster office. They were greeted by Bryce, who was the person who reported Lester, Jr. was missing.

"I talked to Lester when I came back after I investigated the gym," Bryce began. "When he didn't make the call to HQ, I went to the reception to look for him and couldn't find him. I called the school to see if he went back, but he wasn't there either. When Walker High later called to tell me he was missing I called HQ to report him missing." Bryce did look worried, and Clara's instincts told her Bryce was being truthful.

"What did you and Lester talk about?" Clara liked this guy; he acted professional and not at all like a teenager. She thought he could go far and maybe someday he even will be part of the Elite Unit.

"I told him about our investigation of the gym."

Clara's earlier appraisal of Bryce went right out the window at that news. She was upset he would do that, but yelling at a student was useless. He couldn't have known.

"Mr. Larkin, you know that you can't tell anyone outside your team about the investigations."

Bryce looked at the ground. Clara felt some pains of sympathy for him. After all, he was just starting out. "Yes, ma'am. I didn't think I could tell him. But I was his mentor and he worked here, so it was more of…"

Clara held her hand up. "I understand. I'll just chalk it off to youth and inexperience. But I will have to report your transgression to your principal. I'm sorry."

Clara and Andy left. Even though Bryce's transgression hampered their investigation, she hoped he would take the lesson he learned and apply it to next time. Hopefully, Bryce would realize there would be a next time.

_**May 27th, 2032 19:00 PM HQ, Room AB**_

Clara and Andy returned to HQ and debriefed the rest of the team about what they learned. Most of the team found it interesting that Lester's interest in baseball wasn't found in their own dossier. Clara had sent in a disciplinary note about Bryce Larkin to the Academy; she knew that her aunt didn't tolerate mistakes and that he would be suspended but she also knew that it will be good for him.

Clara yawned and stretched. She noticed it was 7:00 PM and she winced. She promised her mother she'd come home for a bona fide cooked meal, as opposed to eating out or tossing something in the microwave. Not to mention looking forward to her mother's cooking.

"Amanda, I'm going to take off if you don't need me. My mother is expecting me."

Amanda looked and her and nodded with a smile. Given what Clara's extended family had been through of late, she didn't mind a bit. Clara waved her goodbyes to everyone, none of whom were perturbed with her leaving early. Clara got in her car and phoned her mother to tell her she was on her way.

_**May 27th, 2032 19:00 PM Old Woodcomb Estate, Lancaster**_

Max finished the last of the threatening letters and readied himself for Europe. The plan was for him to use the untraceable ID he got and travel around in Europe, sending one postcard per day for a month. He had started questioning why they were doing this to Mary. According to Lester, Jr, the plan was ease Mary into the custody of CIA through these threats. They were meant to show the Carmichaels that their security was lacking. At the first time it sounded logical, but he wasn't sure anymore. However, he trusted Lester, Jr. and would do what was asked of him. He was saddened that Lester Jr wouldn't be with him in Europe, but they would probably talk when everything was over. With the money he received for doing this, he could support his mother. Although he hadn't seen her very much since his father left, he still wanted to be there for her.


	5. The Invisble Twos

********Authors Note: Here is the fifth installment, hope you like it. Thanks to _**P.J. Murphy**_ for helping me making this chapter work, after a bit of work this chapter got pretty decent. Please leave reviews. Thanks****  
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**The Invisible Twos**

**May 27th, 2032 7:15 PM Walker Avenue**

Clara walked down Walker Avenue, where her official home for almost nine years was situated. Since she started her job as an undercover agent, dinners with her family seldom happened. Which was why she was excited to be having dinner with her family.

As a ten-year-old kid, she resented Lancaster and the project her mother was involved in. The sudden move from Chicago to Lancaster made her lose her friends. She never really lived here at Walker Avenue; maybe that's why she loved the place so much. The vast contrast between the 50s house and the modern complex that was her Alma Mater made her laugh.

She was greeted by her old dog, Tumbleweed, at the door. She took Tumbleweed in a warm embrace and was rewarded with a wet kiss. She left Tumbleweed in her basket and continued into to the kitchen where she found her father taking a chicken out of the oven. At the kitchen table her baby brother Charlie sat reading a medicine magazine. He was the only one of the Woodcomb kids who was remotely interested in medicine. In the dining room she found her sister and mother, they were setting up the table and didn't notice Clara. A perfect situation for some revenge, Clara snuck up behind Lucy and tickled her, causing her to jump and sending the utensils in her hands in all directions.

"Clara! Don't scare your little sister!" Clara looked at her scolding mother, although the smile didn't fit the harsh wording. After she gave her mother a hug, she picked up the utensils from carpet and gave them to her smiling sister, who was happy to see her.

"Awesome, the whole family is here. Even you, Tumbleweed. Get in here!"

Her father and Charlie came in with the dinner and were tailed by Tumbleweed. She couldn't stop smiling; it felt so nice to be a normal family again.

When everyone sat down at the table…even Tumbleweed had her own chair…Lucy clinked her glass to get everyone attentions. "Hey...umm...I've something very important to tell you." Clara saw her sister was nervous. "I'm seeing a boy...you know Johnny? He's a sophomore."

Clara felt like her eyes were popping out. Her sister was spending time with Johnny Grimes. Uncle Chuck and Aunt Sarah always joked that Johnny confused them, given he looked exactly like his father, Morgan, but acted more like his namesake, John Casey.

The whole dinner table was quite after Lucy's little speech. Clara gave her an encouraging smile and steered the conversation to something else to avoid unconformable questions. She knew how inquisitive her mother could be when it came to a boyfriend, and Clara didn't want to have a scenario like her younger cousin had a couple of years ago.

"I got paired with one of the oldies today," Clara began. "He was like a kid in a candy store when we took a trip to Walker High. It was like he had never seen technology like that. After all, we have the same stuff at HQ, minus the teaching tools."

"Why did you visit my school Clara? Was it about the missing marlin?"

"Missing marlin? What on Earth are you talking about Luce...you know I can't talk about it; you took that course right?"

"Oh...never mind, yes I know about the rules, I aced that test." Clara smiled at her sister and grabbed a bite of her chicken. _It was so nice to have some family time, I really needed this..._She was still technically living at home but spent most of her spare time in the underground living quarter with her friend and coworker Amanda. They had lived there since high school, Clara got a key to the apartment complex by her uncle Chuck just before she started high school because he understood she needed some alone time during high school and he understood her mother could be intense. It was impersonal, but it had the best security and no one knew where you lived, not even your neighbor. You had a card that opened an elevator that only went to your place.

Even if she loved her job and living with her best friend, she felt bad for not being with her siblings as they grew up. Lucy was now fifteen; when Clara started her job, Lucy was only 11. Lucy had changed so much during those years and now she had a boyfriend. _Time really flies by here,_ she thought. But she felt the worst for her parents, not being able to tell them what she was doing and when she could visit them next time.

After dinner they all went into the living room to look at photos. Clara was ecstatic; she always loved that part of family dinners. But she got a bit sad when they showed holiday pictures from a time when she wasn't there. Lots of picture with Lucy running after Charles and laughing, but it was hard to not laugh at the pictures when Lucy was dressing Tumbleweed in hat and glasses. Clara thought she looked so cute in the hat and scanned in that picture in her phone and saved it as a wallpaper.

When all the pictures were shown was Charles already asleep and when Clara tried to carry him up to his room, she learned that he wasn't a little kid anymore. Instead she did wake him up and led him up to his room. After bidding her brother goodnight she decided it was time for her to go home and went downstairs to say goodbye to her parents. Lucy had already gone to her room, Clara's old room.

After she knocked three times she opened the bedroom door. "Lucy...I'm going home, wanted to say goodbye..." She stopped before she could finish the sentence at seeing Lucy in the middle of the room dancing to something on her headphones. She stifled a giggle when Lucy saw Clara and her face got red like a tomato.

"DON'T YOU EVER KNOCK?" Lucy shrieked at her sister as she went to her laptop still red and flustered. She gave Clara an evil glare as she stopped the music.

"Luce, I did. You didn't hear it because you were dancing so hard," Clara replied as she stifled another giggle. Lucy's glare disappeared instantly as she gave her sister a hug. Clara headed out for the night, a smile on her face that felt good compared to how things had been going lately.

**May 27th, 2032 11:00 PM Undisclosed Location**

The only fully developed pristine Intersect version 4.2 was working in its cave searching database after database looking for information and patterns. The big screens surrounding the blue cipher showed massive amount of information ticking by with the speed of light. No living person could process this amount of information even with a old version of the Intersect.

A beep was heard and the pictures stopped ticking by. A picture of Admiral Jack Anderson was shown with pieces of information about his involvement in the Intersect project. Several more pictures appeared with information regarding Pegasus appeared. The Intersect continued working, rifling through one piece of intel after the next. It stopped again and a picture of Max appeared. All the information it gathered was sent to a laptop.

**May 27th, 2032 11:00 PM Orion's Cabin**

Chuck sat in his father's cabin watching the feed from his latest creation, which he named Orion in his father's memory. The laptop he used was only a graphical interface to the Intersect connected through fiber-optic cable to this cabin. At the moment Orion was working on finally getting to the bottom of _Pegasus_. Chuck had just finished building Orion a few months ago and this was its first test. If all went well, he would install one just like it at Carmichael Industries.

He gasped when he saw the screen showed picture of the members of _Pegasus._ _Finally, I will get to the bottom of this,_ Chuck thought as he scrolled down the list of the leaders.

**Floyd Steven Que:** NSA agent listed as dead since 9/11 **-** _ALIASES: Henry Baxter, Manny Man, Admiral Jack Anderson. __**-**_ _POSITION: Director of the Group. NOTE: has as son Steven J. Que (Max Anderson)_

**Gray Boyle: **ex Director of CIA **- **_ALIASES: Steve Serif – POSITION: Old Director, now vice Director_

**Ally Bush: **_CEO of WeapCor, former NSA agent_ **-** _ALIASES: Alice Ash – POSITION: Head of Security_

**Lenny Graham: **Special Agent in CIA **- **_ALIASES: Larry Andersson – POSITION: Head Of Operations_

**Danielle Que:** Ex Instructor at The Farm - _ALIASES: Andrea Anderson, Annie Webber – POSITION: Head Instructor - NOTE: has a son Steven J. Que (Max Anderson)_

Most of the names were people with enormous power, both from the CIA and NSA. In fact, it was scary how high up these people were. The alias of Floyd Steven Que made his blood turn to ice; he was the friendly gym owner in Lancaster. Even scarier was that Max Anderson was an offspring of this evil person. He remembered flashing on him a long time ago and saw what that man had done. He felt sick that his daughter had been near these people.

After further reading of the files Orion generated, he learned more about the structure of Pegasus. But he finally hit the jackpot when he found the connection between Pegasus and the Patels. Sandra Simpson's last handler was Henry Baxter, AKA Floyd Que.

_So that's how they tried to get inside CI. Poor Lester_. He knew that something happened with the Patels and that it was related to Sandra's CIA career, but this changed everything.

**May 27th, 2032 11:15 PM Room 50779**

Amanda sat on her bed thinking about how much new information they had gathered today and was hopeful that they would catch Lester Jr. and Max Anderson very soon. The main computer at CI was working with the information they had, and they were hoping they have some locations tomorrow.

The door opened and her roommate stepped in with a smile on her face. Amanda knew that Clara needed to spend some time with her family, but she couldn't suppress a sting of envy. Even if Clara's parents took her in and made her feel like a part of their family, she still missed her real family. A family she hadn't seen in ages, not since she graduated four years ago.

"So it's finally time to come home, Missy!"

Amanda's impression of Clara's mom was perfect, which made Clara wince and look around the apartment. When they were in high school and came home late they sometimes found Ellie Woodcomb lurking in the shadows. Clara still didn't understand how she could break into one of the most secure buildings in the world. She always suspected Uncle Chuck has something to do with it, but he always denied it.

"Hey, don't scare me like that! It would be just like my mother to do that when I visited THEM and not being out late and drinking like when we were teenagers!"

Amanda chuckled and took cover in the bathroom when Clara threw a pillow at her.

**May 28th, 2032 6:15 AM General William J. Fox Airport**

Max waited for his plane to be ready. He was excited to be continuing his mission, one letter already having been sent. He looked up at the jet being refueled and was relieved he didn't have any problems at the terminal. Because his plane's route was to Europe, he had to stop and show them the proper documentation. He knew that that would happen but it still made him nervous. Thankfully, everything was in order

The agent handed Max back his passport, his ID having cleared global databases. When the Gulfstream finally was ready he took his luggage and got on board. He settled into his seat and took out a disposable cellphone to send a message:

_Mom, Dad -mission was a success, on my way to finish it up._

When the message was sent, he powered down the phone and waited for the jet to take off. Max never really loved his parents, but in his family you always did what they told you to do. When he got the Lancaster assignment he accepted it for what it was, but he was secretly happy to be chosen. For the six past years his life had been a mission for him, but this wasn't anything new for him. Since his birth, Max had changed his identity several times. He wasn't even sure about his real name; he thought it might be Steve or Steven.

A few hours later he stared out the window at the ocean and it finally hit him: he will never see Lester again. Even if he worked for Max's father and knew about the plan, Max didn't think Lester would accept that he had been conning him since they met the first time at the gym. And he was okay with that. The past few years had been good for him, but he accepted a long time ago that he wasn't normal and would never lead a normal life.

He took out the photograph of Mary and himself and looked at their smiling faces. He remembered when they took that picture. That day was the first day he finally understood that he had fallen for her. But that didn't stop him from doing his mission.

_The assignment comes first, my son. _The line his dad often said to him when he was younger.

**May 28th, 2032 9:00 AM Undisclosed Location**

Lester Jr. walked downstairs to his new home for the unforeseen future. The underground complex was large enough for at least twenty people to live in. At HQ he saw his boss, Manny, typing away at one of the workstations. Here they didn't have a personal station and everything was monitored out of concern for a mole infiltrating their organization. Which was why Lester was glad that he took the mystery computer with him. This computer was sent to him couple of days ago, just before Operation Mary, as he called it. He hoped he could have some kind of privacy on that one. The origin of the laptop was still a mystery. He never saw a laptop like it, and the message that accompanied it was even more mysterious:

_Will contact you later and tell you the REAL story..._

It was signed "An old friend of your father." He had been racking his brain to understand what this could mean. The computer worked and was really fast, but there was something creepy about it, like the computer knew who he was. He kept it hidden in his room away from prying eyes. Just to be on the safe side, he set it so the computer couldn't power up if someone else tried to boot it.

**May 28th, 2032 10:00 AM HQ**

Clara and the rest of the team were working hard to keep up with the data the computers were spitting out. During the night the computers had been in overdrive trying to find possible locations where Max and Lester were hiding. With the help of their facial recognition system and 'borrowing' the surveillance camera feeds from the city of Lancaster, they tried to locate places where both of them had been seen. Unfortunately, they were learning the hard way too much intel was as bad as no intel at all. The computer's calculations kept making the list larger, not smaller.

"This is going to take ages," she muttered in frustration and read through the list a second time to see if she could find one that wasn't possible. She looked down and frowned; both had been spotted at the street where her old house could be found, she continued reading. The cabin where Mary has been abducted was on the list. _Could they really be there?_ She was afraid to erase it and continued reading.

After another hour the list was 150 instead of 100, but the computer was not finished. However, they had succeeded with erasing about 50 locations. The next step was for them to investigate every location thoroughly. To make it faster they divided everybody into teams of two. Amanda and Clara were paired. Clara was pleased to not be working with Andy today. He was a decent partner, but he got too excited about missions for her tastes. He was paired with Stu, who was also a rookie agent but a few years younger than Andy. His team went to Lancaster with two other teams, while Amanda and Clara took care of the locations outside of Lancaster.

**May 28th, 2032 11:00 AM The Abandoned Cabin**

Clara felt nervous as she stepped out of the car. Amanda noticed the sudden change of her friend's mood.

"Clara, is everything OK?"

Clara started to nod but stopped halfway and looked up at her best friend. The pain on her face was apparent. "If they were here I could have taken them down and stopped everything before Mary got hurt."

Amanda gripped her friend's shoulder. "Hey, you did everything you could do. Stop punishing yourself for what you couldn't do."

They both stepped inside the cabin, which was empty and hollow. Something felt really off. Clara was certain that the cabin was furnished and that the heat was on the last time she was here. In every room everything was gone; not even dust could be found. Clara shivered; she wasn't sure if it was because of everything felt spooky or the fact that the cabin was cold as ice.

"Hey, Clara! I found something here!"

Clara jumped at the voice of her friend. "I'm coming, where are you?"

"I'm on the second room at the left."

When Clara went inside she saw a hole in the floor, and a hatch cover was sitting beside the hole, which Clara deduced kept the hole sealed. She looked up at Amanda, who gave her a sign to go downstairs. She carefully descended down the hole with Amanda directly behind her. It led to a long corridor of rooms, all of which were empty save one room that housed a large freezer. This cabin had certainly been used by some kind of underground movement, but they couldn't be sure it was a place where Lester Jr and Max had been hiding.

They quickly went back up and to their car in order to report their findings to HQ. They continued their search, visiting 20 other locations around Lancaster but found nothing of significance. They drove back to HQ.

**May 28th, 2032 4:00 PM HQ**

Clara and Amanda were the first back at HQ, but it didn't take long before the whole team arrived. Amanda booted up her computer and projected a large map of Lancaster and its surrounding area on one of the portable screens.

"Team, we have now collected information from 140 of the 150 possible locations and have found 7 possible locations where they may have been hiding. But no sign of them yet; all of the possible location has been abandoned."

She highlighted the 7 possible locations and the 10 unchecked locations on the screen and powered up another screen to show timestamps and other interesting information about the locations. "We need to decide our next move and discuss the possibility of these locations being one of theirs."

Clara looked at the screens to find a pattern, and her focus drifted to the area near Clear Channel Stadium. Something felt off about the times they visited the stadium; both Max and Lester had mostly been there when no games were being played.

_Why would they spend time at a closed stadium?_

She studied the map to see what kind of buildings were near the stadium. Most of them buildings were not conducive for conducting secret meetings. But not far from the stadium was an unused house. The computer flagged the house as a possible location because of its high energy usage. Clara used her tablet to make a note on the screen in front of her. All the chatter stopped and everyone focused on this particular house. Everyone's curiosity was piqued except for Andy and Stu.

"We looked into the owner of the house and felt that the unusual energy usage was explainable." He used his own tablet to put the property information on the screen.

Clara gasped; the house belonged to her parents. _How did I miss that?_ Everyone's eyes were now focused on her, and she felt uneasy. Reading more, she saw that the house was newly renovated. That could explain the unusual amount of energy usage, but she couldn't be sure until she spoke to her mother. She took out her phone and quickly called her.

"Hi, Mom. It's me!" Usually Clara used her real name when she talked to her mother, but she couldn't use it when she was in a room full of agents. "Mom?" Clara repeated, not getting a response.

"Me? Oh, Clara. Sorry, honey. You must be at work. I should recognize my daughter's voice, but I'm a little slow because I don't get to hear it enough."

Clara shook her head in annoyance. "Mom, can you put the maternal guilt on hold for a second? We have a serious problem. Do you know our old house near the baseball stadium?

"Of course I know it. But I haven't thought about it for years. Your father hired someone to take care of it for us. But we still own it. We've been thinking about renting it out.."

"Mom, could you email me the name and number of the contractor right away?"

"Sure, Clara. Is everything OK? Does this have something to do with Mary?"

Clara smiled. "I think we just caught a big break, thanks to you. Send the info right now. Love you. Bye."

Clara felt a wave of incredible relief. She got the answer she needed. A moment later, an email popped up on her computer with the name and number of the contractor. She put it up on the screen as Amanda did a search. Sure enough, the contractor's location was among the seven unknown locations. Clara couldn't believe it; they had done more in the last few hours than anything CI had uncovered in the past several weeks.

From what she knew about Max, Lester had to be the brains behind everything. Lester, who as kid was frightened of Clara, had found security problems that CI had and used them to his advantage. She couldn't really understand how that was possible, but he was always a bit weird and his obsession with Mary made things even more stilted. She never told anyone how she saw Lester hiding behind the bushes a couple years ago, mostly because she thought he was harmless and she didn't want to hurt the friendship she just got back with her cousin. But now in hindsight, she thought she should have told someone about his behavior.

Clara snapped back to the present to find everybody waiting for her to make a decision. "You all agree that this is their hidden headquarters. We will storm the place to try and catch them in the act. We have six hours to plan. Operation Andromeda commences at 2000 hours tonight."

With those words everyone ran to their station to work on the plan. Everybody was determined to make sure this mission didn't fail.

**May 28th, 2032 6:00 PM Carmichael House**

Mary looked down at the magenta envelope. There was no postmark, and she didn't recognize the handwriting of her address on the front of it. She walked into the kitchen with the envelope in her hand where her mother was sitting sipping a cup of coffee. Mary did visit school today briefly, but her mother looked like she hasn't moved since breakfast. In fact, she was still in her bathrobe. Mary saw something in her mother's face she hadn't seen before, and it shook her to her core.

"Mom?" she said timidly. Her mother didn't react, other than to glance at the envelope Mary was holding and shiver even more. Mary gave her mother a hug and sat down next to her. She opened the envelope and started reading.

_Dear Mary!_

_You have been a naughty, naughty girl, and you know what I do to naughty girls. If you don't stop doing that, I WILL COME BACK FOR ANOTHER ROUND OF SIMON SAYS._

Mary stopped reading after only a couple of lines, holding the letter tightly in her hands. Her mother looked at her. Mary was ready to fall apart completely. She tried to take the letter out of her hands, but Mary wouldn't let go. Her mother became hysterical and ripped the letter away, tearing it in the process. Mary stared at her mother in shock for a second before looking down at the one piece still in her hands. All that remained were the words _Love, Max_. Words she loved to read a week ago but now caused her to break down and cry.

**May 28th, 2032 7:55 PM HQ/CI Parking Garage**

"Listen up, Agents. In exactly five minutes, Operation Andromeda commences. You all know your assignments. Make this count, understood?"

Amanda was one of the youngest in the team, but when she raised her voice, she could make a hardened Marine step back. Everyone nodded their readiness and waited for the signal from their boss.

Clara followed everyone out of the room towards the garage where they would meet up with one of the top squad, instead of it being Uncle Casey's team it was Gertrude's squad. Gertrude was of course too old to going with her team; she would stay in the car. Truthfully, Clara would have preferred both Uncle Casey and Aunt Gertrude to be backing her team up tonight, but Uncle Casey was busy with other assignments, according to Gertrude.

**May 28th, 2032 8:05 PM Clara's Former Home**

The car was first class and had one of the new LED-window which was transparent but still can show information. Today they were filled with information of speed and location of the target with a road description from the location to the target. Clara doesn't use the road description, she never felt safe using them. Especially for this mission, when she knew the road by heart.

The cars arrived outside the house. The sun was setting but no light was seen from the windows of the house. Verbanski and her team jumped out of their vehicle and created a perimeter. Clara and Amanda waited in the car for the clock to chime 8:10 PM. Both of them were well-trained for situations like this thanks to their education at Walker High.

When they saw the sign they jumped out of their car with guns pointed and went to their separate entrance points. At exactly 8:12 PM, both teams broke through the doors and into the quiet house. There was no sign of Lester or Max everywhere they looked. They found a hidden sub-basement, but it contained nothing but computer equipment.

**May 28th, 2032 11:00 PM Woodcomb Estate**

Clara walked around in her childhood home and was near to tears; the bastards succeed to evade them a second time. She felt worthless and didn't know how she could speak to her aunt and uncle about the failed mission, but she knew that she was the one that should tell them the bad news.

**May 28th, 2032 11:00 PM Carmichael Industries**

Chuck watched the proceedings through a security feed and felt very bad for her niece. He realized it was time for him to come clean and tell them all about Pegasus and how he was planning to stop the people responsible. But first he needed to check on Lester Jr. and explain the truth about his CIA group. That task would be at the top of his list first thing tomorrow.

He started his car and slowly drove towards the gate of CI thinking about how he would explain everything to his family. His phone rang; he saw it was Clara. He activated the hands-free

"Hi, Clara."

It was quiet on the other line for a while before he heard his niece's voice.

"Uncle Chuck, I…I really need to speak to you."

Chuck exhaled slowly. "That's...that's good. Actually I need to speak to you as well. Can you come over tomorrow with your parents?"

"Sure, any specific time?"

"10 AM is okay with me."

"I'll see you then, Uncle Chuck."

Chuck felt relieved when his niece hung up and drove the last miles in silence.


	6. The Truth

**********Authors Note: Here is the fifth installment, hope you like it. Thanks to _**P.J. Murphy**_ for helping me making this chapter work, after a bit of work this chapter got pretty decent. This chapter is the last one, but an epilogue about the aftermath will be posted. Please leave reviews. Thanks**********

**The Truth**

**May 25th, 2032 - 18:00 - Casey Household**

John Casey was angry. Angry at himself and at Lester Jr,

_How could I not see that?_

He looked across the table to where his wife usually sat; she and her team were currently working with the team protecting his goddaughter while he was home feeling sorry for himself by downing a few shots, even breaking out the good whiskey and listening to Neil Diamond. He turned down help from Chuck, who had an unusual control of his emotions when they talked. Sarah, on the other hand, was a mess the last time he saw her.

He needed to fix this and take care of Lester Jr,, whom he knew had taken his untraceable IDs. _Thank God I had them scanned before he took them._.

**May 29, 2032 - 08:00 - Undisclosed Location**

Lester Jr. sat on his bed with a raspberry chocolate bar, sniffing its delicious aroma. He was humming on one of his father's tunes when his laptop started buzzing. He opened up the screen to find it full of static before forming a silhouette of a person, with a word forming above that.

_HELLO _

Lester Jr. didn't remember leaving the laptop on before he went to bed. I_t can't power on itself...can it?_He stared at the screen as the cursor blinked like he was in some kind of online chat.

"Who are you?"

He waited impatiently for the laptop to answer his question. It felt like hours before words started to form on his screen. _An old friend of your father's. You can call me...Rigel._

There was something familiar with that name, but he wasn't sure what it was. "Okay...Rigel...did you send me this computer?"

_Yes. I needed a safe way to contact you._

"If it was you, what did you mean with the note?"

_Exactly what it said: I know the real story about your family and felt you needed to know the truth before you did something you will regret._

Lester Jr. read that last word several times. _What would I do that would make me regret doing it? My father left my family because he couldn't handle living with a spy. It can't be something else_.

His hand trembled as he typed. "Regretting what?"

Nothing happened for a while. Lester Jr. thought he might have scared away whoever it was. He was just on his way to the mess hall when the laptop began buzzing again.

_Sorry I disappeared for a while; I needed to do something else. But I meant what I said. You will regret it when the truth comes out. To put in simple terms, your whole life has been planned by some very bad people who are after something very dangerous._

He gaped at the screen. It sounded like one of the thrillers he usually watched with Mary during her Max-free weekends. It didn't make sense. Why would someone want to control his life? He was a regular kid with a screwed up family.

"I don't believe you. This is just something you're doing to mess with my head..."

"No, Lester. It's the truth. Read the documents I'm sending to you. They will make you understand it better."

His laptop beeped with a downloaded file. Lester Jr. opened the file and started reading through the documents. When he finished, he sat in shock for a moment before letting out a blood-curdling scream. The documents contained the entire outline of _Project Nightfall_, a mission to infiltrate the Carmichael family and their company. The operative for this mission was a Sandra Smith, aka Sandra Simpson. As he continued to read, his face blanched at what his mother was apparently capable of. He thought she was simply a victim in all of this. The Carmichaels were like a family to them, and the thought of Uncle Casey learning the truth scared him.

His breathing returned to semi-normal. "So my mother was a scumbag, a spy planning to steal secrets from a company? What does that have to do with my supposedly controlled life?"

"Lester, your mother was only a pawn in a conspiracy created by Floyd Steven Que, aka Manny Man. He has planned for this your whole life. Your family, your life was all a way for him to get a foothold in Carmichael Industries."

_It can't be..._

Lester Jr. stared blankly at the screen, He couldn't believe Manny was be the evil person Rigel was telling him, but he had proof about Project Nightfall. C_an it be true?_

The screen was still and the sudden silence from Rigel scared him. _What if Manny had found out about Rigel and captured him?_ Thinking about everything, it all made sense how both Manny and Max suddenly appeared and how they easily helped him through his problem at home. Even how Manny helped his mother. He felt humiliated to not have seen this given his education from Walker High and Uncle Casey's personal tutelage to be a spy. But he also felt ashamed his mother didn't see through Manny, as she was also a spy in her past. But perhaps given the problems with his father and the fact that Manny was a confidant in her CIA life, it made her less suspicious of Manny.

_What I'm going to do_? he thought and suddenly his room went pitch black, the only light coming from his laptop.

**May 29th, 2032 - 07:00 - Casey household**

A beep awoke John Casey from his slumber. His neck was stiff after sleeping another night in front of his laptop, his breath reeking of whiskey. But it finally gave something; he saw that the passport had been used for a travel in a Gulfstream to Reykjavik. He needed to get on a flight really fast. He bounded upstairs to his bedroom to pack lightly and was at Fox Airport within thirty minutes. He said goodbye to Gertrude, who understood his need to do this on his own. Given their twenty years of marriage, she understood him as well as anybody. She even promised not to tell Chuck or Sarah.

**May 29th, 2032 – 09:00 - Undisclosed Location**

In the dark room Lester Jr. felt calm. He held his eyes on the screen when the word _RUN_ appeared. Lester wasted no time and began to pack. When he came back and looked at the laptop, the screen showed a detailed map with every entry out of the base, one of which was highlighted. A series of arrows showed the fastest way to it.

Lester decided to follow Rigel's directions and run from the base. Thanks to the computer, it was fairly easy to reach the entrance. It even warned him when agents were near. When he finally reached the entrance, the door opened for him like magic. Lester was freaked out by how easy it was for Rigel to breach the security and get him out of this secure complex.

Behind the door was a long tunnel. He put the laptop in his bag as he walked slowly through the tunnel. He hadn't any clue to what he was planning to do now; his old life was ruined and the chance of finally being with Mary was long gone. The only thing to do was to travel to some remote location and start a new life where no one even had heard about Carmichael Industries.

When he reached the end of the tunnel, he checked the laptop, which showed an address here in Lancaster. _I will go there and see what Rigel has left me there. And then, I'm staying away from Lancaster forever._

**June 10th, 2032 - 16:00 GMT - London**

Casey sat alone in his hotel room polishing his gun, feeling like his golden days over twenty years ago. He started to feel excitement about the hunt for Lester Jr, The idea to put his unknown IDs into the system was a good idea, even if it made them more unsecured. The problem lay in finding the little bastard, as London was a big city and Lester could be hiding anywhere. Without some external help, Casey would have real trouble getting anywhere, even with the advanced laptop Chuck gave him as a present.

Not far away from the hotel, a man dressed in nondescript clothes and dark sunglasses entered a post office with a letter in his hand. The man stood in line to buy international stamps. He had twelve people in front of him, but he wasn't in a hurry. He opened his jacket and took out a chocolate bar, devouring it in one large bite. The man started to hum as slowly walked forward in the line and faint smell of raspberry followed him.

Casey finished cleaning his guns; it was almost time for dinner. It was one of those times where he missed his family the most. He wasn't the same hard-as-nails agent he once was, but he was determined to complete this mission out of loyalty for his old (and best, he mused) friend, Chuck. He felt responsible; having let Lester Jr. into their families was something he felt strongly for and now it came back to bite him in the ass. Several times during the two weeks since he left his home he almost called Gertrude, but his pride stopped him. He needed to finish this on his own before he could face his family with pride again.

**May 29th, 2032 - 09:45 AM - Walker Avenue**

Clara walked along Walker Avenue, her stomach filled with butterflies of the nervous kind. She needed to meet up with her parents before they went to see her uncle. Amanda had asked if she should join her, but Clara knew this was something she needed to do on her own. It was her family, and even if Amanda was in charge, she still felt responsible for not catching Lester Jr. and Max.

The door opened before she could knock on her parents' door and her family appeared looking quite subdued. Clara felt like they knew she had screwed up and she looked down at the ground, not wanting to see the disappointment in their eyes.

After a slow walk they reached the Carmichael house. The door was already opened, and Clara heard voices in the living room. Almost everyone was there: Molly and her family, Morgan and Alex with their family, even Gertrude. But Uncle Casey wasn't there. Clara figured he still was working on whatever he was doing.

After she pulled out several chairs for her family she walked towards Uncle Chuck, wanting to finish this as soon as possible.

"Uncle Chuck...can we speak about the mission I spoke about yesterday?"

Clara felt her uncle was a lot more nervous than her, which was weird. He looked at her smiling before he shook his head and mumbled something that sounded like "We'll talk about it later."

Clara was really scared. What could have happened that made her loveable uncle this person?

**May 29th, 2032 – 12:00 - Lancaster Apartment, Room 102**

Lester sat down on the bed. It wasn't a large room but it suited his needs. The easiest way to disappear was do a total makeover and not leaving any trails of his old life. He felt sad when he used the scissors to cut his long dark hair. The fact that he was on the Most Wanted list made it really important to be unrecognizable, even if Rigel had promised to take fix that. When the long hair was gone, he took out a bottle of hair dye.

It was really amazing how much information Rigel had given him. He now had one ID, one passport, and an extensive biography of his new identity: Johnny Smith. He was a twenty-year-old Canadian traveling the States before starting the new semester at college. He carefully inspected himself in the mirror and compared it to the photograph.

It needed to be a little shorter.

**May 29th, 2032 10:15 AM Carmichael House**

"Family, I'm afraid I've been lying to you for a while. I learned about Pegasus and its threat, and at the time I felt it was safer to keep the information a secret. But when Mary was caught up in it, I felt it was important to tell you everything. I was wrong for not doing that before now, and I am sorry for keeping you in the dark like this."

Everyone's eyes were on Sarah, who was sitting calmly between her daughters. She didn't exactly react the way she should have. Something felt off and the fright in everyone's faces was apparent. The woman sitting there wasn't the strict headmaster and wife they all knew and loved.

With everyone's eyes on her, Sarah suddenly stood up, smiled at her husband, and turned to her extended family. "Don't worry I'm not crazy again," she joked and walked up to her husband's side. "Chuck told me about Pegasus when he first learned about it, but he kept the contents of their plan a secret because he wanted to protect me from my past."

Some of the older people gave each other understanding looks, implying that they knew what Sarah talked about. Morgan started to stir on his stool, and Alex saw the sudden change in her husband's face. She wasn't used to such a serious face on her husband. She only saw it after one of his sessions with Sarah. _OMG..._she finally understood what Sarah was talked about, with one arm she embraced her husband who stopped stir at the touch of his wife.

"To keeping us from prison, I will not explain the full origin of Pegasus," Chuck continued. Clara sat completely still; she was weirdly excited about hearing about her aunt and uncle's past. She knew they worked in the CIA with Uncle Casey and that's how they all met, but what they exactly did was something they never spoke of.

"You know all know about my father's project, that project forced me into CIA which is something I don't regret." He smiled at his wife before he continued. "During my years with CIA I met and worked with lots of people and one thing most of them had in common was that they all wanted to be part of my father's project. When I finally quit the CIA, I understood that they would continue with my father's work."

Clara knew most of that story but the butterflies she felt before was long gone, listening on her uncle talking was soothing and she couldn't wait to hear more.

"About a year after I quit the CIA, my team and I met up with a crazy agent who blamed everything that had gone wrong in his career on me. He succeeded to destroy many people's lives. When he was finally stopped, the CIA decided to shelf my father's project.

"Unfortunately, not everybody agreed. It was at this point the story of Pegasus started. Some people high up in the intelligence community decided that shelving the project was the wrong move and started their own project named Pegasus. In the beginning, it was like every other black op CIA project and it flew below the radar. But after a couple of years some of the members started a revolution, and a new leadership was formed with completely different agenda than CIA. The first thing they did was to begin a mission to infiltrate CI. Unfortunately, they succeeded."

Everyone gasped and some of the new family members got the evil eye. Chuck quickly shook his head. "No one in this room is to be blamed. I'm not sure if it was in their plan or not, but one of their agents fell in love in her subject and a child was born. This child was named Lester Patel, Jr. Since he was seven, he had been coerced by Pegasus to be their own secret weapon. He always thought he did it for his country and not a rogue group."

Chuck paused for a minute. "I've taken care of him and he won't be harming anyone else. I can't say I can forgive him for what he did to Mary, but what's done is done."

Clara looked down and felt bad for Lester Jr for the first time in her life, but something felt really weird with what happened. _How could he really think the CIA would want to hurt Mary?_

Clara looked up at Chuck, who smiled at her. She felt encouraged and decided to ask the question that bothered her.

"Uncle Chuck, how could he think that CIA could be behind this? This didn't look like a typical CIA operation."

Chuck could only shrug. "They were really good at manipulating him. They told him that they needed to have a man inside CI, but the kidnapping was his idea. Max's as well, who convinced him that they needed to turn Mary to their side."

It made more sense now, but it made her sadder for Lester Jr. Her hatred for Max Anderson increased exponentially.

Everybody talked quietly among themselves. Clara asked Chuck to speak to him in private. Chuck led her downstairs to his rather unkempt office.

"Clara, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

The butterflies in her stomach started to flap their wings again and she suddenly had trouble speaking. When Chuck had given her a glass of water she finally could speak again.

"It's about the hunt for Max. Yesterday we raided several possible locations where he could have been hiding. All locations were empty, but at several we found proof that people had been there."

Clara looked up at her uncle and tried to fight back a few tears. "We aren't closer to finding him then when we found out that he was involved. I am so sorry."

Chuck hugged her tightly. "Clara I know everything about the raids. You've done everything that could be expected of you and more. This isn't your fault. We will find him very soon."

Clara felt relieved for the first time in weeks. That Bartowski charm worked its wonders again. Her uncle knew exactly what to say to comfort her.

**May 29, 2032 - 23:00 – Unknown Location**

Lester Jr. sat down on his bed and his face was filled with tears. The reality of his existence hit him like a brick. His whole life was a façade. One of his best friends had conned him and his mother didn't marry his father out of love. Even if Rigel told him that she did love his father he would never believe him, since he always knew that they met when she was a spy. But for the first time in his life, he understood why his father had left them. Learning that his wife was out to destroy everyone he cared about would make anyone crazy. But his mother's reaction afterwards doesn't make sense.

_Why did she went crazy over a failed mission? Could it really be true that she really loved him and some part of their relationship was real?_

The thought made him feel better, but it was little comfort in the grand scheme of things. He would never see Mary again and she probably hated him now. Not that he could fault her.

**June 1, 2032 – 07:00 - Carmichael Industries**

Clara sat down on her stool thinking about how everything could have gone that wrong. Everything looked good when they through Uncle Chuck could talk with Lester Jr. But he couldn't help them that much, other than telling her Lester Jr. stole one of Uncle Casey's untraceable IDs and gave it to Max. But he had no clue where Max could have gone, other than he would travel in Europe.

They had hit the wall; they had no way to track him. All available personnel in Europe were looking for Max, but no one found anything. It was as if he was a ghost.

**June 4th, 2032 – 17:00 - Carmichael House**

Mary came home from a day filled with exams and was tired. She was finally back at school full time. It had been a week since the letter arrived and six days since she learned the truth about everything. She still hadn't accepted her father's apology, however.

_I can't understand how he could have let everything happen when he knew that Pegasus was after the Intersect._

She now hated the Intersect with every fiber in her being. It was her family's legacy but it was also the family curse. Nothing good ever came out from it.

She went through the mail to see if her acceptance letters from Stanford had arrived. Most of the letters was to her parents, but one letter was for her. It was postmarked Lisbon five days ago. She recognized the handwriting and she stopped breathing for a while.

_He was back._

She tried to not let it affect her, but it was really difficult. She tossed it in the garbage and ran upstairs to her bathroom. She called her big sister.

**June 12th, 2032 05:27 - Arlanda Airport, Stockholm**

Casey was awakened by the thump from the plane landing. He was really close now. Lester Jr. landed here only hours ago and soon he would have the bastard caught. He wanted this to be over for his Goddaughter. During his tenure as a babysitter for Mary, he learned about her fondness for chocolate and always made sure he had some chocolate on him. He told her it was for him to remember her during his missions, even if really didn't do missions anymore. But a twelve-year-old Mary didn't know that.

**June 14th, 2032 – 17:00 - Carmichael House**

It was another day, she had already got nine more letters from Max and now her parents didn't let her and fetch the mail anymore. She sat in the kitchen waiting for her mother to go through the letters. She went cold when her mother's eyes showed anger at the letter she was holding. Mary thought it looked like it was postmarked in London.

**June 20th, 2032 – 16:00 - Las Palmas**

Max sat down on his deck chair, letting the sun embrace him. He had mailed the last letter and was finally free. During his travels he had starting to wonder if what he did was right. That usually happened when he started to think about Mary. Sweet, sweet Mary and her fondness for chocolate.

_I really loved her. Hurting the people you love is never right, but didn't family come first_

Max looked down at a well used photograph of Mary. He caressed it like he had done thousands time before. He then caught the faint smell of chocolate before the sun was blocked by a large figure pointing a gun at him.

"Consider yourself lucky I'm supposed to return you home, you son of a bitch. Because I'd be more than happy to end your life right now."

**The End**


	7. Epilogue: A New Dawn

************Authors Note: Here is the epilogue, hope you like it. I might write a sequel to this story later. Beware this chapter is unbetated. Please leave reviews. Thanks  
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**Epilogue: A New Dawn**

**June 16th, 2033 – 22:00 – Maximum CIA Security Prison Cell 55C**

On a bed a boy was sitting, his long unkempt hair was hanging down obstructing his face. Cell 55C was stripped of personal belongings, the wall was clean besides a well used photograph of a young beautiful girl with long curly blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Every time the boy looked up at the pictures he burst out in shriek that was something between a sob and a shout.

When the door opened he didnt't look up, not recognizing his father standing there.

" I'm here to take you home, you lovesick fool. "

Max looked up and for the first time in a year he started to laugh...I_ finally can get my revenge..._

Manny looked down at his once handsome son before he grabbed his hand and dragged his laughing son out of the cold cell, happy that he did rigged the camera making it impossible for anyone to hear Max's hoarse laugh.

**June 17th, 2033- 09:15 – University of Toronto**

At the back of the lecture hall was a twenty one-year old man sitting with short blond hair who scribbled down everything the lecturer said. Today was Johnny Smiths birthday and later today all his friends was going to the local bar to celebrate him. Today's lecture was in Criminology, a subject young Johnny loved and none of his friends dared speak to him during this particular lecture.

For Johnny this day wasn't special, he really didn't have a birthday today. He had quietly celebrated his 17ht birthday at Mars 28. During Mary's birthday May 14 he told everyone he was sick and sat home watching sappy romantic comedy and eating chocolate. But today he needed to play his role as a happy twenty one-year old college boy. The fact that he never graduated High School but still are a top student in one of Canada's finest university makes it easy for him to use to project mirth for his fake birthday.

Later that day Johnny was drunk, but he still were in control, he was dancing with his girlfriend Amy a blond-haired beauty that resemble Mary on many levels. He even sometimes thought he were with Mary and not Amy which had caused him some problems.

In a dark corner of the bar were an angry man sitting, his long unkempt hair was hanging loosely obscuring his face. His eyes never left Johnny and his girlfriend, his scowl made the barmaid afraid he might attack the young lad on the dance floor. But this behavior was usual in the bar close to the campus.

**June 17th, 2033 14:15 – Standford University**

Clara opened the door to her and Mary's dorm room, looking around making sure it was safe for Mary. Everything seemed normal and Clara could relax a bit, since the events last year her job has been uneventful. But since last year, she had learned to enjoy the quiet life when it happens. Assessing it as secure, she decided to pick up the mail for both herself and Mary's and went outside.

Todays mail was full, mostly it was to Mary but she had also got one letter from Amanda, she looked forward to read it later. When she was again in Mary's dorm she started going through Mary's letters as a precaution, she used CI's latest invention that scanned the letters without making it look like someone had read it. Two of the letters was from Stanford, one was from her Mum but posted to Mary. It made Clara really sad, her mother never sent her a letter. But they did talk twice a week. The last letter made her laugh, Mary will love that, it was from Lester Jr. Clara knew that Mary had been worrying about Lester for a while.

After reading the letter a single tear was shed, _he's so cute, asking Mary for her forgiveness but at the same time promising that he will leave her alone_.

Usually Clara had time off when Bryce had the surveillance (it was divided between several classes), but she had promised looking into a boy that had showed interest in Mary. Since Max Mary had been scared to make new friends and it had taken both Clara and Bryce to make her try to make some new friends.

It was easy getting access to other dormrooms, which had made them putting extra security in theirs. But Adam's had no extra security which made it simple for her to get into. His room looked like she expected from a college boy, filled with course book and posters. It didn't take her long for her to asses that he was clean. During the clean up of the dorm, she accidentally knocked down a lamp and found microphone, that made her suspicious. She put it back, and went out and called her best friend to ask if it was their mic.

" Amanda it's me, do you know anyone having a Adam Smith under surveillance ?" she asked as she walked back to her dorm, they had planned a dinner today with herself, Mary, Adam and Bryce but at the moment it looked like they needed to cancel it. " Claara, what are you saying? Call me back when you read my letter." First she didn't detected the shriver in Amanda's voice, it didn't came until she was alone in her dorm.

_Something was wrong and Amanda couldn't tell her that on the phone_. With shaking hands she opened her letter and read the content.

C3C1 W2A1W3Z4 A2E3Z4 Z2 B4E3B1B1A1C2H1G1A1C1 E2H2E3B1 B4H1Z2, B1Z2D1 G4Z2W3 C1W3B4Z2F4C1D0...

Clara recognized the code, something she and Amanda had created during the school time and they were the only one that understood it. It took her a while before she could decipher it.

We just got a communique from CIA, Max has escaped don't let Mary out of your sight we suspect a mole.

A silent shriek came from Clara's mouth, the mad mad Max was out and he would definitely go after Mary. _Not now when Mary is getting better, not now..I'm not sure how I can tell her or if Bryce is safe..._

Not far away Mary was walking happily not knowing what just had happened. She was surrounded by her knew friends that didn't know what she had been through, which made it so much easier. Not far from her was Agent Bryce Larkin walking, he looked liked a regular student but his job was to protect Mary, his studies was only a cover.

Bryce graduated from the most prestigious Spy Academy in the US, but still he only got this job as a body guard. Even if the one he was protecting was from one of the most respectable family in the spy business. With friends he may complain how boring this job was, but deep inside he loved this job and being able to work with the famous Agent Woods, who still held the records at the academy.

**A/N: Thanks to everyone reading this story, hope everyone was happy with how this story ended. Please overall comment how you liked this story. /Osced**


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